Spread in the area of more than 25,000 square metres, the hospital has been built in less than two weeks.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan and Delhi Chief Minister on Sunday visited 1000-bed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel hospital developed by Defence Research Development Organisation in a record time of 12 days in New Delhi.

As per a press note from the Ministry of Defence, the hospital will be operated by a medical team of doctors, nurses and support staff from the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) while the facility will be maintained by the DRDO.

Additionally, for the mental wellbeing of patients, the hospital has a dedicated DRDO managed psychological counselling centre.

Spread in the area of more than 25,000 square metres, the hospital, equipped with air-conditioned medical facility, has 250 ICU beds and each one of them is equipped with monitoring equipment and ventilator.

The infrastructure is built with negative internal pressure gradient for safe contagion containment. The facility has been engineered using rapid fabrication technique based on octanorm modules.

The hospital consists of a separate reception-cum-patient admission block, medical block with pharmacy and laboratory, duty doctors, nurses accommodation and four modular patient blocks each consisting of 250 beds.

The corridor network has been designed to keep the patient’s movement separate from the doctors and staff movement. Sanitation facilities and toilets are situated between the blocks for easy access to patients and facility personnel.

The patient blocks are self-sufficient with facilities for patients and medical care staff. Patient facilities include oxygen supply to each bed, x-ray, electrocardiogram (ECG), haematological test facilities, ventilators, COVID Test Lab, Wheel Chairs, Stretchers and other medical equipment.

The DRDO developed COVID-19 technologies such as ventilators, decontamination tunnels, personal protective equipment (PPEs), N95 masks, contact-free sanitiser dispensers, sanitisation chambers and medical robots trolleys will be utilised at the facility.