Gurugram’s first private dedicated COVID-19 Hospital

On May 11, 2020, Medeor Hospital Manesar was inaugurated as a dedicated COVID-19 hospital for patients from all walks of life in Gurugram. The 120-bed hospital, which represents a unique collaboration between hospital groups, private corporations, civil society, and the Gurgaon administration, completed one month of operations today. The hospital has successfully treated and discharged 80 patients since its inauguration, with many of these casesbeing critical cases with pre-existing co-morbidities. Currently, the hospital has 72 patients who are undergoing treatment for COVID-19, taking the hospital’s total patient count to 150+.

Conceptualization of the project

The idea for the project was conceptualized by the leaders of four hospital chains–
Dr. Naresh Trehan (Chairman and MD, Medanta the Medicity), Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi (CEO, Fortis Healthcare), Dr. Devlina Chakravarty (MD &CEO, Artemis Hospitals)andDr. ShamsheerVayalil (Chairman &MD, VPS Healthcare), It was during a meeting with the Haryana CM Sh. Manohar Lal Khattar in March that the idea to repurpose Medeoras a dedicated COVID-19 Hospital for the district was firstproposed

This was well before the district started seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases. The hospital was envisioned as a facility that will offer highest quality COVID-19 treatment to patients from all walks of life in Gurugram, and supplement the COVID-19 bed capacity of the district (which included only 80 beds at ESIC Hospital and 40 beds at Civil Hospital at thattime).

Setting up the Hospital in 7weeks

With the go-ahead from the Haryana Administration, the teams at the partner hospitals rapidly came together to revamp and operationalize the facility. Medeorprovided the requisite infrastructure and also undertook various upgrades to the hospital’s infection control system and sewage treatment plant. The doctors and nurses were pooled in by Medanta, Fortis and Artemis. The three hospitals also provided the equipment and consumables required to kick-start thehospital.

In parallel, a group of CEOs from leading corporations with extensive presence in Gurgaon formed the “Gurgaon COVID-19 Volunteers Group”, and initiated a large fund-raising campaign for the hospital. The group included Deep Kalra (Founder CEO, MakeMyTrip), PramodBhasin (Founder, Genpact &Chairman, ClixCapital), Sumant Sinha (Chairman and MD, ReNew Power) and TaabSiddiqi (Co-founder, Harvest Gold Industries), amongothers.

Besides committing substantial funds to the project, themselves, the group reached out to colleaguesand friends across the country to pool funds for the initiative. They partnered with IAm Gurgaon, a leading NGO in Gurugram, for raising and managing thefunds.

Inauguration and rampup

Within just 7 weeks of initiating the project, the Hospital was inaugurated on a hot sunny morning on May 11, 2020 by Sh. Ashok Sangwan, IAS (Commissioner, Gurugram). Sh. V.S. Kundu, IAS (Commissioner, GMDA, Gurugram); Sh. Rajeev Arora, IAS (Additional Chief Secretary, Health Department, Haryana); Sh. Amit Khatri, IAS (Deputy Commissioner, Gurugram) and Sh. Vinay Pratap Singh, IAS, (Commissioner, MCG, Gurugram) were also present at theinauguration

Speaking at the inauguration, Dr. Trehansaid:
“This is not commercial. We are doing it from the goodness of our hearts. I am happy because Medanta, Fortis and Artemis, we are competitors, but we could come on the same platform during thistime”

The Hospital began operations with 50 beds, which were rapidly filled up within 10 days with patients referred by the Civil Hospital Gurugram. Many of these included critical patients with severe symptoms and co-morbidities, who were successfully treated atMedeor.

As Gurugram witnessed the sudden rise in cases towards the end of May, the hospital teams cametogether once again to ramp up the hospital’s capacity to 120 beds within 3weeks.
Currently, the Hospital has 72 active patients who are undergoing treatment forCOVID-19.

Wayahead

Medeor has successfully treated and discharged 80 patients so far, including patients from all walks of life (Ayushman Bharat, economically weaker sections, CGHS and other government schemes, private insurance, cash-paying etc). With the COVID-19 cases in Gurugram sharply rising and the district opening up for economic activity, the team at MedeorHospital is on its toes to adapt to how the COVID-19 situation evolves in thedistrict.

While initially Medeorwas accepting patients only on referral from the Civil Hospital Gurugram, the Hospital is now accepting patients directly too. The Hospital will also be startingan ambulance service soon. Medeoris also in the process of procuring a new state of the art Real-time Quantitative micro PCR testing machine, which will significantly reduce the turn-around time for COVID-19 test results. Further, to ensure optimum utilization of the hospital’s infrastructure, the teams are also evaluating setting up an isolation facility near the hospital for care of patients with mildsymptoms.

With the COVID-19 crisis showing no signs of flattening out in the near future, I Am Gurgaon remainsfully committed to supporting the initiative with fundraising andexpertise.