First private hospital in CG to get this license from NABL & ICMR
Naya Raipur, Balco Medical Centre (BMC), a premier cancer hospital in Naya Raipur, has received both State and National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) approval for testing for COVID. BMC has become the first private hospital in Chhattisgarh to achieve this feat. Looking at the present COVID scenario, it is the need of the hour that private hospitals enter in this field to contribute and speed up the processing for piling testing cases.
The laboratory dept. at BMC comprises of finest hisptopathologist, microbiologists, lab technicians and world-class instruments and equipment. It is just third year of functioning of BMC and the hospital is expected to get full NABL accreditation in few months.
The approval for COVID testing from NABL is the latest landmark in the series of COVID preparedness displayed by BMC. Mr. S. Venkata Kumar, COO of Balco Medical Centre said, “BMC treats one of the most vulnerable patient groups –the cancer patients, who are at higher risk of infection due to low immunity which happens due to the disease itself and the associated treatment. However, the hospital team has not allowed the COVID threat to become a barrier for the treatment of cancer patients. Getting faster COVID test results will allow the healthcare professionals to initiate the proper treatment at the earliest and ensure maximum safety of the relatives and staff.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, Dr. Manisa Sahu, HOD Hospital Infection Control & Consultant Microbiologist at Balco Medical Centre said, “Until now only government operated hospitals like AIIMS & JNM Medical College, IRL were allowed to process COVID samples. Owing to a steep increase in the number of COVID affected people and delayed results due to overwhelming number of samples, we had to send the samples to Mumbai. It took 3-4 days for the results to come. Through the approval of molecular testing by ICMR & NABL, COVID samples can now be processed in-house and results can now be obtained within a day.”
Chief of Medical Services of Balco Medical Centre and Surgical Oncologist, Dr. Jayesh Sharma, added, “We feel cancer patient’s treatment shouldn’t be comprised at any cost. There is high risk of mortality, if a cancer patient, who is COVID positive, undergoes any operation. The approval for in-house COVID testing will allow us to identify the positive patients within couple of hours and help us to decide proper treatment protocol for them. This will help to keep our patients and health care workers safe.”
Detailing about COVID preparedness at various levels, COO, Mr. Kumar informed that BMC has put in place measures such as thermal scanning of every entrant at the main gate, strict social distancing, adherence to hand hygiene practices and ensuring more than the minimum prescribed level of personal protective equipment (PPE). All patients and their attenders are also provided triple layer surgical masks. All patients are first meticulously screened to look out for COVID symptoms, travel and contact history. This is to ensure segregation of suspects to a different isolation ward.
To curb overcrowding, only one attendant is being permitted along with patient. In addition, efficient engineering controls such as enhanced air changes, especially in high-risk areas, dedicated negative pressure isolation rooms for any aerosol generating procedure are in place. Stringent protocols are followed to ensure frequent sanitation and fogging of the entire hospital and ambulances.
