Amid rising cases of novel coronavirus, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal directed Medical Superintendents (MS) of all the hospitals run by the Government to ensure adequate availability of all resources and medical staff in the hospital to deal with any unprecedented situation in the national Capital.
Kejriwal also said the Delhi Government will take strict actions against private players or suppliers who are refusing to supply any essential commodities like masks, sanitizers, etc under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
He directed the medical superintendents to provide them with a list of such suppliers who are refusing to provide such essential commodities.
The Chief Minster also asked all MS to immediately procure all necessary supplies, such as medicines and ventilators. "All paperwork regarding the same will be completed immediately to ensure that there is no delay in the procurement of the supplies. Delhi Government officials and cabinet will make sure that we provide immediate approvals for the same. You can send the files to our offices and we will sign them at once, and you may contact our offices directly in case of any issues," he said.
"All the ventilators must be in a working condition. All the MS would also need to contact their suppliers as well as manufacturers of the medical equipment to take note of the current stock of the ventilators that they have. We will procure all the stock of ventilators from those suppliers and manufacturers. All the medicines and consumables must be available with all the hospitals, and there should be no shortage if there is a bulk requirement," he said.
He also instructed Health Minister Satender Jain to ensure no supplier overstocks essential items like medicines, masks, and other essential items, those suppliers who indulges in overstocking will be raided if required
The directions came in a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister to prepare to deal with the possible corona-virus crisis in the city.
Medical Superintendents were also empowered to appoint additional manpower as required under all the categories on contract for the next three months in order to fulfill staff crunch. "We are empowering all the MS to recruit freely under all the categories, under the Delhi Epidemic Act 1987," he said.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said the authorisation to recruit manpower will be given to all the hospitals till June 30. Budget provisions will also be managed in the same manner, wherein the cabinet and medical officials will ensure that the files are signed immediately, he said
Kejriwal said, "We are in a critical phase right now, which can lead to the expansion of the virus. We should also ensure whether we have adequate medical facilities, equipment and sufficient number of isolation beds and wards available to deal with the crisis."
"There has been no community transmission of the virus until now, but we should be prepared to handle the crisis if it happens. The objective of this meeting is to realise the criticality of the promptness of all the medical officials and staff to handle the situation," he added.
Kejriwal also directed the hospitals to ensure that there should be no escapes from their premises. "We will deploy more security and police personnel if needed. We will speak to the police authorities and ask them to deploy more police personnel in front of all our hospitals," he said.
The Chief Minister also assured that the Delhi Government will talk to the Central Government to ensure mass procurement of testing kits to the Delhi Government hospitals. "The Government will speak to the Indian Council of Medical Research and the central government to address this issue," he said.
Kejriwal also instructed the PWD officials to resolve all the issues pertaining to necessary arrangements in the isolation wards. He said that all the protocols of all the isolation wards must be followed.