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Aster DM Healthcare is taking a re-look at HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems in its hospitals.
“In line with the latest discussions globally, we are now re-looking at our HVAC systems and the standards being followed,” Dr Harish Pillai, CEO - Aster India, Aster DM Healthcare, told BusinessLine .
“The existing design for HVAC needs to be augmented for the management of an airborne pandemic such as Covid-19,” he added.
The hospital group in India is spread across 14 locations in five states.
According to Dr Pillai, the group has deployed skilled frontline healthcare workers from its GCC network to assist in answering queries from the families of patients.
“Aster DM Healthcare has activated services of its global CSR arm - Aster Volunteers. As a majority of the Indian clinical faculty have been deployed for the management of Covid patients, few personnel are available to man the helpline numbers for anxious patients. This important public service has been taken over by clinical faculty from the GCC network, who have been providing free advice and consultations through this helpline channel. Two separate helplines have been made available for answering adult and paediatric patient queries.”
“The group has mobilised over 100 doctors from the GCC and over 400 Indian doctors are currently involved in the free Covid advisory service. Within a week of its launch , more than 125 people have registered to avail of the free advisory,” he added.
Aster Volunteers
Aster Volunteers has also helped the group meet the increasing demand for beds for Covid patients, and increased the bed capacity by partnering with local organisations.
Aster Medcity has tied up with Geojit Foundation to set up a 50-bed field hospital in Kochi, Aster has partnered with Al Shifa Hospital in Noida to set up a field hospital with a total of 50 beds. Aster DM in Kozhikode has set up 50 beds equipped with Oxygen, BiPap & Ventilator. Aster CMI & Aster RV, Bangalore have added 10 beds (five at each unit) in association with the Shri Radhakrishna Swamiji and Kemwell Pharma & Bagaria Education Trust respectively.
Talking about the challenges posed by the pandemic, Dr Pillai said, “The main challenge faced is the magnitude of cases over a short period of time. High demand for oxygen beds was not encountered in the first wave. We have augmented our on-site oxygen capacity. Even though we have liquid oxygen plants at all our sites, we have doubled the capacity of traditional oxygen banks, which are dependent on large size cylinders, and we are also looking at ordering oxygen generators, which are currently in short supply in the market. This will augment capacity and increase strategic reserves of oxygen within a hospital.”
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