Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: For Kalinga Institute of Medical Science (KIMS), a private medical College in Bhubaneswar, COVID crisis is an opportunity to serve people of state.
While private hospitals elsewhere in the country are facing charge of fleecing COVID patients, KIMS is the shining trophy in the hands of Navin Patnaik govt of Odisha. Here is the exemplary public private cement to halt COVID 19 in its track.
It is COVID hospitals plenty in Odisha. It has left even Kerala behind in its preparation for the impending COVID catastrophe. Under the aegis of KIMS, there are 34 dedicated COVID hospitals in the state. Kerala is 2nd in number with 27 COVID.
Hot on the heels of announcement of lockdown on March 25, the Naveen Patnaik government made an agreement with KIMS, a renowned medical institute in Bhubaneswar, to establish an exclusive 500-bed Covid hospital, though Covid patients in the state was then stuck in single digit. On April 2, country’s first private hospital was ready for the treatment of COVID patients.
Achute Samant, Member of Parliament and Founder of KIMS said, ‘Our institution has always been in the vanguard when it came to serve people in times of distress. Just like in times of cyclone, we are again fighting Corona from the front.’ KIMS belongs to KIIT ( Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology), a deemed University founded by Achute Samanta, who has earned the fame of being Humanitarian Extraordinaire due to KISS ( Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences) , the biggest residential tribal school in the world, giving free education from KG to PG to poorest of the poor tribals in the state.
According to Mr Samant, ‘KIMS meets expenses of staff, including doctors and healthcare workers, as well as arranges facilities for their stay near the hospital. The state govt bears the cost of the treatment and consumables. The KIMS Covid hospital’s per bed per day spending is just Rs 6,914. Recovered COVID patients’ experiences in these hospitals are the best testimony to quality treatment with compassion.
Odisha’s testing credentials and numbers are also commendable. It has a test rate of 3,029 samples per million populations, which is upward of national average of 2490 tests. The state can also boast of fatality rate of only 0.42% against national average of 2.86%.
