ICU, Isolation Centre Installation must follow specific rules: experts
Professionals, including public health and utility experts, urged the authorities concerned to set up intensive care units and isolation units at hospitals ensuring necessary safety measures as they observed that safety norms were being ignored in installing most ICU units in the country’s hospitals.
The recent initiative to increase ICUs and isolation units in hospitals following the COVID-19 outbreak across the country prompted the professionals concerned to discuss the issue as they thought that wrong installations of such facilities would be suicidal.
The authorities, however, said that the government was installing the facilities following related guidelines.
In the past week, the Institute of Architects Bangladesh published a handbook titled Design Guideline for Isolation Centre to help architects and healthcare professionals to quickly set up new facilities or transform an existing facility into an isolation centre.
‘Amidst the outbreak of coronavirus [COVID-19] pandemic in 2020, like many countries of the world, Bangladesh is in a stage of setting up a number of Isolation facilities to serve a huge number of patients,’ IAB president Jalal Ahmed said in its handbook.
According to the handbook, an isolation centre can be defined as an independent healthcare facility operating separately from other hospital resources, which is specifically equipped for the treatment of infectious diseases.
It said that there are various facilities in place including a specific entrance for the patient, triage area for separating suspected and confirmed patients, a diagnostic facility and dedicated laboratory for carrying out tests, an isolation patient treatment room or ward, medical staff area, decontamination area, waste disposal area, laundry, kitchen, all of which help to ensure that the patient is treated safely.
It said that an isolation room is a patient treatment area that aims to control the airflow in the room to prevent cross-infection of other people within an isolation centre.
Healthcare and pharmaceuticals facility designer Hasmotuzzaman told New Age that there should be station for physicians and nurses, corridor, airlock anteroom, exhaust filtration, distance between beds, toilet and soiled linen storage facility in an isolation unit.
He said that the diagnostic facility with polymerase chain reaction lab and bio safety cabinet should be there in the unit while negative pressure isolation room was a must as it reduced the risk of infection via airborne transmission to other persons.
Negative pressure should be ensured by placing Magnehelic type differential pressure gauge at patient room entry, he said, adding that pressure gauge and alarm system were necessary to detect when pressurisation was not been achieved.
He said that the ICU units and isolation centre should have professionally designed HVAC system facilities if cooling was required, otherwise AC should be avoided as window type AC would put people outside at risk.
Public health expert Najmul Hussein told New Age that there was a possibility of bungled installation of ICU and isolation units as the civil engineers usually do the jobs in our country. They do not have enough awareness about the risk involved in building faulty ICU, he added.
He said, ‘The Directorate General of Health Services should come up with a mechanism to inspect the exiting ICU units as there is a possibility that these people have done a bungled job.’
Health Services Division additional secretary Habibur Rahman Khan said that the authority was sincere about ensuring maximum safety during the installation of the ICU and isolation units.
Health Engineering Department superintending engineer Anower Hossain said that they were following the instruction of the DGSH during the installation of ICU and isolation units.
On Sunday, at an online press conference, health minister Zahid Maleque said that the government was preparing to set up 4,500 isolation beds while 6,726 had already been installed to provide treatment to COVID-19 patients.
On Saturday, addressing the seventh session of the national parliament, prime minister Sheikh Hasina said that her government would take steps to install ICUs at every district hospital.
She also said isolation units and hospitals dedicated specifically to treating COVID-19 cases were being set up in different divisions and districts.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
