PATNA, May 10 -- The Bihar government on Friday directed all health facilities to have sufficient stock of medicines, blood, wheelchair and stretcher and to create additional space and earmark beds for sudden rush of patients, while cancelling leave of all healthcare workers in the wake of heightened security alert following the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 and India's retaliatory military action against Pakistan that began on May 7. Pratyaya Amrit, Bihar's development commissioner, who also holds the charge of additional chief secretary, health, and disaster management department, convened a virtual meeting of all principals and superintendents of medical college and hospitals and civil surgeons in districts on Friday and shared the emergency preparedness plan and the standard operating procedure to be followed during an emergency. As part of the plan, health facilities right from district hospitals to medical college hospitals were asked to make emergency wards functional and have dedicated beds for any exigency. The health facilities were instructed to keep at least 10% equipment, medicines and other essential items in reserve, have enough oxygen backup, blood bags and to update the blood availability status on e-RaktKosh, ensure availability of stretchers and wheelchairs, tagging of dedicated ambulance with trained emergency medical technician to ensure timely access of affected person to identified health facility during golden hour. They were also told to establish a 24x7 control room in their respective facility to monitor the situation and have a quick medical response team to tackle any eventuality. The health facilities were asked to identify secure areas and ensure 24x7 functioning of emergency services like operation theatres, intensive care unit and or high dependency unit. They were also asked to identify additional space for emergency care, have power backup through generator and inverter sets in case of blackout as per security protocol. They were also told to do contingency planning to cover windowpanes and other areas to prevent emission of light during blackout. Amrit also asked the hospital administrators to train human resources in first aid services such as basic resuscitation, dressing, wound care and stabilisation of patients. He also stressed that every health facility should have an emergency response plan in line with disaster management plan, focusing on triage, treatment and referral of patients to higher facilities. He also stressed conducting mock drills in essential emergency services at health facilities to ensure high quality care. Dr IS Thakur, medical superintendent of the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), who attended the meeting, said, "We have earmarked around 10 beds in surgical ICU, 30 beds in the general surgery emergency with additional space for accommodating 100 beds in the newly constructed nine-storied tower 1 and 2 of the PMCH redevlopment project. Dr Thakur said that there was no shortage of blood of any group, with volunteers of the national medical organisation (NMO) on standby to donate blood in case of any eventuality. The superintendent said there was already provision for having adequate medicines, including those of burn and plastic surgery, for around 70 patients. As part of the quick reaction team doctors in the emergency unit of different departments, including the physician and surgeon on duty, and unit in-charge in special circumstances would be available on call. Dr Thakur had nominated his officer-on-special-duty (OSD) Dr Kumar Arun and Dr Raj Kishore Sharma, both medical officers, as the nodal officer and assistant nodal officer, respectively, for disaster at the PMCH. Executive director of the State Health Society, Bihar (SHSB), Suharsh Bhagat, State Programme officer of health system strengthening cell & quality cell and nodal officer for road safety Dr Abhishek Sinha, SHSB administrative officer Rajesh Kumar and National Health Systems Resource Centre representative Ajit Kumar Singh were also present from the side of the health department....