Mumbai hospital devises 'kavach' to move COVID-19 patients

In a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection among its medical staff, the state-run J J Hospital has developed a transport chamber for contactless movement of COVID-19 patients within the premises. Developed by the general surgery department of the hospital with the help of engineers of a firm named Indomed Devices, the patient transport 'kavach' aims to reduce the risk of infection among the hospital staff, visitors and other patients. Sanskrit word 'kavach' literally means an armour.

"The cost-effective glass transport trolley has a HEPA filter at the head end, which filters out particles as small as 0.02 microns," said Amol Wagh, assistant professor of surgery at J J Hospital.

"Everyday thousands of health care workers test positive for the infection and have to be quarantined. This results in shortage of medical staff," he said.

Hence, innovation in protective devices is the need of the hour as medical staff has to spend long hours in PPE kits, making it difficult for them to provide required patient care and treatment, Wagh added. Speaking about the innovation, head of surgery, Dr Ajay Bhandarwar, who came up with the concept, said the trolley will not only prevent transmission of coronavirus, but it also protect COVID-19 patients with low immunity from contracting other infections from their surroundings.

Patients can be incubated in the trolley and tests, such as sonography, can also be done when the patient is inside the chamber, Wagh said, adding that engineers and experts are working on ways to install the chamber in ambulances and make it compatible for CT scans.