Meitra Hospital with the Health Ministry to establish Kerala’s first Tele-ICU at Beach Hospital
Kozhikode: Kerala has marked yet another pioneering innovation in the field of public healthcare. Health Ministry along with Meitra Hospital has successfully set up the state’s first Tele-ICU at Beach Hospital, Kozhikode. Meitra Hospital will be leading the deployment of the clinical & technological expertise, while Faizal & Shabana Foundation will financially support the recurring operations of this initiative. The official launch took place on the auspicious occasion of Kerala Piravi, in the presence of Honorable Health Minister Ms. K K Shailaja, MLA Pradeep Kumar, District Collector Mr. Sambasiva Rao IAS, Superintendent of Beach Hospital Mr. Ummer Farook, District Programme Manager - National Health Mission Dr. A Naveen, Meitra Hospital Chairman Mr. Faizal E Kottkollon, Meitra Hospital CEO Dr. P Mohanakrishnan.
Government General Hospital, also known as Beach Hospital becomes the first member of Meitra Hospital’s mission to upgrade and equip healthcare with technology & bridge an acute shortage of intensivists in the country. The initiative is not just expected to address the deficient number of specialists but will offer a range of critical care facilities ensuring better health outcomes, risk - reduction of medication errors, and infection control, through pro-active round-the-clock monitoring.
“The initiative is intended to turn the healthcare system into a giant ecosystem. There is a shortage of Intensivists and the current pandemic has laid open the gap and exposed the vulnerabilities at a global level. It is the right time to leverage technological innovations to solve healthcare challenges, by giving the doctors more digital solutions in their armamentarium. Meitra Hospital has always prided itself on being at the forefront of healthcare innovations. We are happy to be partnering with the Health Ministry to bring the latest technological advancements to the state to serve the people better,” said Faizal E Kottikollon, Chairman, Meitra Hospital & Founder Chairman, KEF Holdings.
“There are more than 3 lac ICU beds, but less than 5000 intensivists in the country. The gap is huge & cannot be left unaddressed especially when it comes to life-saving critical care treatments. Technology advancements have ensured that we can now democratize quality healthcare and bring it closer to people through wider access. Our Tele-ICU setup is a proud Made-in-India solution that is at par with global standards. Our team of intensivists will monitor the Tele-ICUs from our Command Center based at Meitra Hospital which will offer round-the-clock monitoring of critical care patients. We have also trained the staff at Beach Hospital so that they stay abreast of the new technology” informed Dr. P Mohanakrishnan, CEO, Meitra Hospital.
Meitra hospital stands committed to providing quality healthcare in the country. This step towards creating a network of Tele-ICUs in the region once again reiterates its commitment towards its people. The hospital will be extending this facility to a host of other hospitals in the region to bridge the doctor-gap and make their ICUs more robust, efficient, and better adept at handling diverse kinds of critical care patients, a release said.
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Sydney church stabbing being treated as act of terrorism, police say
Sydney (AP): Australian police say a knife attack in Sydney that wounded a bishop and a priest during a church service as horrified worshippers watched online and in person, and sparked a riot was an act of terrorism.
Police arrested a 16-year-old boy Tuesday after the stabbing at Christ the Good Shepherd Church that injured Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and a priest. Both are expected to survive.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the suspect's comments pointed to a religious motive for the attack.
“We'll allege there's a degree of premeditation on the basis that this person has travelled to that location, which is not near his residential address, he has travelled with a knife and subsequently the bishop and the priest have been stabbed,” Webb said. “They're lucky to be alive.”
The teenager was known to police but was not on a terror watch list, Webb said.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation's main domestic spy agency, and Australian Federal Police had joined state police in a counter-terrorism task force to investgate who else was potentially involved.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said the investigation had yet to uncover any associated threats.
"It does appear to be religiously motivated, but we continue our lines of investigation," Burgess said.
“Our job is to look at individuals connected with the attacker to assure ourselves that there is no-one else in the community with similar intent. At this stage, we have no indications of that,” Burgess added.
On ASIO's advice, the risk of a terrorist attack in Australia is rated at “possible.” That is the second lowest level after “not expected” on the five-tier National Terrorism Threat Advisory System.
In response to the attack, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said “there is no place for violence in our community. There's no place for violent extremism.”
The Christ the Good Shepherd in suburban Wakeley streams sermons online and worshippers watched as a person in black clothes approached the altar and stabbed the bishop and priest Isaac Royel during a church service Monday evening before the congregation overpowered him, police said.
A crowd of hundreds seeking revenge gathered outside the Orthodox Assyrian church, hurling bricks and bottles, injuring police officers and preventing police from taking the teen outside, officials said.
The teen suspect and at least two police officers were also hospitalized, Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Andrew Holland told journalists.
The church in a message on social media said the bishop and priest were in stable condition and asked for people's prayers. “It is the bishop's and father's wishes that you also pray for the perpetrator,” the statement said.
Holland commended the congregation for subduing the teen before calling police. When asked if the teen's fingers had been severed, he said the hand injuries were “severe.”
More than 100 police reinforcements arrived before the teen was taken from the church in the hours-long incident. Several police vehicles were damaged, Holland said.
“A number of houses have been damaged. They've broken into a number of houses to gain weapons to throw at the police. They've thrown weapons and items at the church itself. There were obviously people who wanted to get access to the young person who caused the injuries to the clergy people,” he said.
Australians were still in shock after a lone assailant stabbed six people to death in a Sydney shopping mall on Saturday and injured more than a dozen others.
Holland suggested the weekend attack heightened the community's response to the church stabbing.
“Given that there has been incidents in Sydney the last few days with knives involved, obviously there's concerns,” he said. “We've asked for everyone to think rationally at this stage. We spoke to community leaders and members of the community to speak to their local people, to try and keep people calm."
The premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, described the scenes as “disturbing” on social media and urged the community to remain calm and “stick together.” Religious leaders expressed shock and condolences.
Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone, leader of the neighboring municipal government, described the bishop as a community leader. “This is a very emotional situation. Obviously the community is very upset,” Carbone said.
Christ the Good Shepherd had been preparing for Palm Sunday later this month.
The church said in a statement on Tuesday the 53-year-old Iraq-born bishop's condition was “improving.”
Emmanuel has a strong social media following and is outspoken on a range of issues. He proselytizes to both Jews and Muslims and is critical of liberal Christian denominations.
He also speaks out on global political issues and laments the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
The bishop, described in local media as a figure sometimes seen as divisive on issues such as COVID-19 restrictions, was in national news last year with comments about gender.
A video posted in May 2023 by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. about a campaign targeting the LGBTQ+ community showed the bishop in a sermon saying that “when a man calls himself a woman, he is neither a man nor a woman, you are not a human, then you are an it. Now, since you are an it, I will not address you as a human anymore because it is not my choosing, it your choosing.”
