All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has decided to cancel the winter vacation for their staff this year to serve the increased demand of manpower in the current situation of coronavirus pandemic. The vacation was slated to be taken from 23rd December 2020to 10th January 2021.

The hospital is at the forefront in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic by offering treatment to infected people at two of its dedicated COVID facilities — Trauma Centre and NCI Jhajjar since the last few months. Trauma Centre has almost 265 COVID beds and NCI Jhajjar has 1,500 COVID beds. Dr D K Sharma, Medical Superintendent of AIIMS, said that the main AIIMS campus conducts limited OPDs and emergency procedures. Currently, elective surgeries are not happening. However, they are receiving more than 300 patients by main emergency and another 100 patients daily at the Trauma Centre. The occupancy of beds in the hospital remains normal. Dr Sharma further said that a decision would be taken when the COVID situation in Delhi gets stabilised, regarding resumption of normal operations.

The hospital had closed all the OPD services and curtailed the elective surgeries in March to redirect its resources to battle the ongoing pandemic. Surgeries were only conducted for emergency cases and the follow-up was also done through tele-consultation to reduce the necessity for patients to visit the hospital. All their hospital staff including medical, paramedical, support and office staff are trained on infection-control practices.

LokNayak, is the largest medical facility that is run by the Delhi government and is currently functional as a dedicated centre for COVID treatment. Dr Suresh Kumar, Medical Director of the hospital, said that they were considering starting the non-COVID services soon. The National Medical Council has allowed the medical colleges to be opened. Non-COVID services should resume for superior training of students and to serve the patients who are suffering from different ailments.

Source: ET Healthworld