BHU Microbiology Lab gets a boost for COVID-19 testing
VC holds a high-level meeting to review the measures being taken in BHU
Varanasi: The COVID-19 testing capacity of the Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory at the department of microbiology, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University got a boost on Monday after it received a consignment of testing kits.
The consignment was sent by a special plane of Air India, which landed at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport on Monday. The consignment was transported to the BHU lab. Currently the BHU lab, which is one of the nodal centres for COVID-19 test, has a load of 16 districts of eastern UP. It has also got two testing machines recently.
Meanwhile, the BHU vice chancellor Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar held a high-level meet on COVID-19, and assured glitch free availability and supply of testing kits and consumables to health care staff. The meeting was attended by Rector Prof. VK Shukla, IMS director Prof. RK Jain, Medical Superintendent Prof. SK Mathur, Nodal Officer COVID-19 Prof. Jaya Chakravarty, Registrar Dr. Neeraj Tripathi, finance officer Abhay Thakur, Professor In-charge of Trauma Centre Prof. SK Gupta, and head of Microbiology department Prof. Gopal Nath.
According to the BHU spokesperson Rajesh Singh, the VC also reviewed the patient cure facilities available in Sir Sunderlal Hospital, Superspeciality Block and Trauma Centre. He inquired about the availability of ventilators, collaborative efforts being taken by BHU and district administration, and facilities provided to doctors, resident doctors, health care workers, sanitation staff and nurses. The VC extended his deep sense of gratitude towards the Central government, Uttar Pradesh government and district administration for the constant support in tackling the challenges posed by Covid-19 outbreak.
During the discussions, resources in BHU for quarantining people involved in Health Care services, were explored. Though BHU has already made adequate arrangements in this regard, a need to explore more resources is being felt in wake of the growing number of Covid-19 cases. Arrangements for the purpose are being made in the New Nursing Hostel, University Guest House and Faculty Guest House.
The VC said that it must be ensured that emergency services other than COVID-19 are functioning smoothly. Medical Superintendent informed that emergency services of major disciplines are functional. The VC directed IMS director and Microbiology head that availability of kits and consumables for testing must be ensured and there should not be any obstacles in their supplies to BHU. He underlined that there is no scarcity of funds in order to provide health care services to COVID 19 patients and those involved in conducting tests.
He inquired about the status of telemedicine facilities in the hospital and instructed that all steps be taken to ensure smooth running of these facilities. The VC was informed that currently two doctors are providing consultancy to the patients and two contact numbers are operational for the purpose. As per the directions of the VC the number of doctors available for telemedicine is being increased to five while three more contact numbers are being made available so that more patients may be facilitated.
