Pralhad Joshi urges Rajnath to convert military hospitals into Covid centres

Bengaluru: Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi, in a letter to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, drew his attention to the worrying situation of Karnataka due to the surge in Covid cases.

Joshi stated that the hospitals were running out of beds and the situation was unprecedented due to the non availability of ICU facilities in government and private hospitals. In this regards, he requested the defence minister to convert all armed forces hospitals in Karnataka including command hospital in Bengaluru, Military Hospital in Belagavi, INHS Hospital in Karwar (Field Hospitals) into Covid care centres so that the shortage of immediate medical care to the extent possible can be tackled.

"I also urge you to kindly take early steps for starting new makeshift hospitals from defence forces in Karnataka to meet the needs of the emergent situation," he said.

"Daily more than 35,000 new cases are being reported and the State capital Bengaluru alone is reporting more than 20,000 cases daily and active cases are more than 2.2 lakh. The situation in other districts is of great concern. The positivity rate in the State is almost 22% and almost all the hospitals in the States are overwhelmed with patients.

"The situation is unprecedented which is further aggravated due to non-availability of ICU facilities in almost all Govt and private Hospitals. The state Govt is doing its best to make available the timely Medical care to the increasing number of patients," the letter read.

This is the second BJP leader after Bangalore Central MP PC Mohan made a similar appeal to the defence minister

to direct the armed forces to set up a 1000-bedded hospital in the state.

"Bengaluru has many defence establishments, including the Command Hospital run by the IAF and other medical formations. I request your kind self that armed forces units may hereby be instructed to set up Covid Care Centres, medical care centres and to reserve a portion of total beds to the general public," the letter by Mohan read.

He also requested Singh to permit using the services of the armed forces to help in delivering medical logistics.