Bokaro General Hospital (BGH), the largest heal hub of the region, has suspended its out-patient department in as many as five streams of medicine, including cardiology and nephrology, to direct resources and manpower towards treating Covid patients.

BGH, run by Bokaro Steel Plant, a unit of SAIL, has also altered the timings of its general OPD, according to a circular issued by the hospital.

The decision to wind up the OPDs _ chest, neurology and gastroenterology are the others _has come as rude shock to patients suffering from heart, kidney and neurological ailments.

The circular quotes BSL chief of communications Manikant Dhan saying, “Special clinics will remain suspended till further notice”. But sources said these clinics would be resumed at the earliest after assessing the Covid-19 situation.

BGH, which is a dedicated Covid hospital, is treating symptomatic cases. It has 90 beds across four wards, apart from an ICU and OT for Covid-19 patients. The Bokaro district administration has asked BGH to increase the number of beds, given the steady rise in the number of cases.

Bokaro also has two Covid Care Centres of 100 beds each for asymptomatic patients. Several asymptomatic patients are in home isolation or hotels.

BGH has 135 regular doctors, apart from about 70 contractual doctors and those pursuing DNB in BGH. All of them are over-worked because of which the BGH management decided to put senior doctors on Covid duty.

However, the OPD’s in orthopaedics, physiotherapy, skin, ENT, psychiatry will continue to function. The timings will be changed till September 19, Dhan indicated.

With 910 beds, BGH is the largest hospital of the coal belt region. It performs over 8,000 surgeries and receives 11 lakh outdoor patients who come from neighbouring districts of Dhanbad and Giridih, and even from Purulia in Bengal.