ITBP referral hospital treats 1,150 COVID-19 patients

 The Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) referral hospital, located in Greater Noida, has so far treated more than 1,150 COVID-19 patients belonging to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and their family members, an official said.

The hospital has seen a very high recovery rate which is almost 100 per cent and only one patient died during treatment, due to heart attack, ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said.

The recovery rate at the facility is way above the national recovery rate of 78 per cent, despite the fact that 25-30 per cent admitted patients at the hospital had co-morbidities like cancer, TB, heart disease etc, he said, adding that about 8-10 per cent patients were critically ill at the time of admission with major breathing difficulty.

This was a serious situation and required continuous monitoring and oxygen. All critical patents recovered due to tireless efforts of the hospital staff, said the spokesperson. 

Among the 1,150 COVID-19 patients who received treatment at the ITBP referral hospital till September 8, as many as 289 were from the ITBP, 200 from CISF, 196 from CRPF, 159 from SSB, 91 personnel from BSF, 83 from NSG, 64 from SPG, 19 from IB, 15 from NIA, 10 from NDRF, seven from NTRO, five from the Ministry of Home Affairs, three from the CBI and one from BPRD.

During the nationwide lockdown, a lot of personnel from various paramilitary forces got infected with COVID-19 while performing law and order and internal security duties and being deployed in containment areas.  They faced difficulties in getting beds in hospitals in the Delhi-NCR region.

During this time the facilities of the referral hospital were opened up for all the uniformed forces, other sister agencies and their families, the spokesperson said.

Equipped with specialised facilities like hip replacement, knee replacement, dialysis, non-invasive cardiology, laparoscopic surgical procedures, cancer screening etc, the state of the art facility is not less than a unique super speciality hospital of its kind he said. The hospital is headed Dr DC Dimri, IG (Medical) and has about 50 specialist doctors from the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and Central Police Organisations (CPO).

The success in treating COVID-19 patients was achieved because of the dedicated teams of doctors, paramedics and nurses who worked round the clock and attended to all the patients with utmost care and caution, the spokesperson said.

No doctor or hospital staff suffered any COVID infection despite being exposed to the disease for long periods of time during their duty.  Inaugurated in 2018, the hospital has been a "dream project" of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the ITBP, he said. 

(Image Credits:PTI)