District Administration asks Private Hospitals to go for high-flow nasal oxygenation

Mysore/Mysuru: Taking a serious note of spike in COVID-19 cases, the District Administration is planning to have around 120 oxygenated beds at the new and ultra-modern Mysuru Trauma Care Centre in PKTB premises on KRS Road which is being converted as another COVID-19 Hospital.

Deputy Commissioner B. Sharat told Star of Mysore that the purpose of having one more ICU with around 120 oxygenated beds was to treat all the patients suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) and Influenza-like Illness (ILI). Discussion was on in this regard and a decision will be taken as early as possible.

Instruction to Private Hospitals

He said instruction has been given to all private hospitals to compulsorily go for high-flow nasal cannula oxygenation as this has distinct advantages over other oxygen devices because of its unique effects on respiratory physiology. In particular, adjustable oxygen delivery and flow-dependent carbon dioxide clearance reduce work of breathing during respiratory distress. 

The private hospitals are asked to procure the medical equipment which is best suited for high-flow nasal cannula oxygenation. 

Mysuru district requires around 22 KL oxygen daily, and finding the oxygen cylinder is little difficult at this juncture. In Karnataka, a Ballari-based company manufactures high-flow nasal oxygen, the DC said and added that he held talks with his Ballari counterpart to arrange the supply of it to Mysuru at the earliest. This will not only address the current shortage of oxygen in the district but will also reduce the burden on procurement of oxygen cylinders.

According to him, high-flow oxygen therapy is commonly used on patients with acute respiratory failure (hypoxemic respiratory failure) in the hospital system. Patients are usually in ICU or high dependency wards, and require assistance with respiration to stabilise breathing and control blood gases.

The District Administration is taking all possible steps to be completely ready to deal with the situation in the wake of sudden increase in Corona positive cases and casualties in the last two months.

As on Saturday, the district has 32,348 positive cases, 5,546 active cases and 721 deaths.  Over 500 new positive cases are reported in the city and district thus forcing the District Administration to take urgent steps such as appealing people to go for voluntary RT-PCR test instead of Rapid Antigen Test and a ‘mask drive’ against people not wearing face masks in public places.

It may be recalled that former DC Abhiram G. Sankar, while addressing the Task Force meeting of Chamaraja Constituency along with MLA L. Nagendra, MCC Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde and Corporator M.U. Subbaiah at ZP Hall recently, had said that the Trauma Centre can accommodate 246 beds and 46 ventilators. 

“All the patients suffering from SARI and ILI at the K.R. Hospital at present will be shifted to this Trauma Centre and the K.R. Hospital will be reserved to treat non-COVID patients. The Trauma Hospital is a second major advanced facility to treat COVID patients after the District Hospital that has now been converted into an exclusive facility to treat virus-infected patients,” he said.