Kerala joins Mumbai doctors to help win COVID-19 fight

A team of medicos including nurses from Kerala will be assisting the existing team of doctors fighting COVID19 cases at Seven Hills Hospital starting MondayInterestingly the entire team from Kerala has taken up the task voluntarily as the Kerala government has only granted permission to the team lead Dr Santosh Kumar deputy superintendent Thiruvantapuram Medical College to visit Mumbai Dr Kumar who is also the associate professor of orthopaedic at the same medical college had set up a 200bed COVID19 special ward in Kasaragod Kerala in April within a short period of timeThe development comes after Dr TP Lahane Director Medical Education and Research who is also the nodal officer for COVID19 had written a letter to KK Shailaja Minister Health and Social Welfare Kerala requesting them to send experienced doctors and trained nurses for management of patients in MumbaiMigrants workers and their families trying to catch a train from CSMT on Saturday PicBipin KokateThe idea was to have the team from Kerala help in setting up the 600bed COVID unit at Mahalaxmi Race Course which will start functioning from Wednesday However on arrival of two members from the team on Saturday and post discussion with Dr Lahane it was decided that Seven Hills would be a better setup and closer to their place of lodging which is at a private luxury hotel on the Sahar Airport Road Andheri EastHighlyplaced officials within the health ministry of the Kerala government told midday that while they had received the letter from Dr Lahane they could not officially send any team to Mumbai We only gave permission to Dr Santosh Kumar The number of COVID cases is on the rise in Kerala too as people are returning from different states as well as the Gulf Our government doctors are already preoccupied handling fresh COVID cases said the officer who wished to remain anonymousOn Saturday the number of positive cases in Kerala had gone up by 58 taking the total number to 635Dr Lahane however said that it was Dr Kumar who expressed his desire to provide assistance to Maharashtra government We then extended an official invitation to him he saidOut of 50 doctors 23 will be coming on Monday which will include six intensivists and physicians The arrival of 80 trained nurses have also confirmed The remaining 27 doctors and nurses will be arriving by Thursday or Friday All of them will be put in the same hotel near the airport We are providing for their transportation lodging and boarding They will be insured for R50 lakh each said Dr LahaneThe doctors are being hired for a temporary period of two months While the MBBS doctors will be paid R80000 per month MSMD or specialised doctors will be paid R2 lakh per month and trained nursing staff will be given a salary of R30000 per monthWhen asked why the government had decided to send them to Seven Hills Dr Lahane said Seven Hills is a 1000bed COVID hospital with 100 beds in the ICU We are increasing the ICU beds to 200 and the team from Kerala will be helping us with this Dr Kumar who has already arrived in the city said that he had already visited Seven Hills and was impressed with the services being provided by the team of doctors The number of positive cases in Mumbai has been increasing daily We are here to only provide assistance to the existing team and wont be introducing any new line of treatmentDr Kumar said that his team will be coming from different districts of Kerala Most of them are MBBS graduates and some are specialised intensivists pulmonologists and anaesthetists like Dr Sajeesh Gopalan who is attached to SP Fort hospital in Thiruvanatapuram and has joined me in Mumbai already Majority of them have one to five years of work experience and some are pursuing their postgraduation coursesCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news