BHUBANESWAR: More than a year since they started tending to Covid-19 patients, volunteers of Sahaya have remained the support that the families could not offer to patients.
These tireless volunteers who work behind the screens have earned the appreciation and gratitude of patients and their families.
The members of Sahaya are unfalteringly assisting the patients and their attendants at government hospitals in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri and creating awareness to contain the pandemic.
Any citizen visiting SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar and DHH at Puri for Covid-19 test, or for some other treatment and those injured in road accidents are being regularly assisted by the members of the NGO.
They are guiding the people about the process to be followed for patient registration, testing, admission and other procedures.
The NGO has 12 members in Bhubaneswar and 17 each in Cuttack and Puri.
Last year after the outbreak of the pandemic, 12 members of the NGO were infected with the virus.
Though all the members of Sahaya have been vaccinated by the hospital authorities, one of them working in the Capital Hospital was found to be infected earlier this week.
“Once an ambulance drops a patient, we start assisting him/her. If required, we even carry them on the stretchers. Many a times, we come to know that the patient is infected by Covid-19 after we assist him/her to get admission in the wards. However, we are continuing to assist all those who require help,” said Sahaya secretary Kailash Chandra Sarangi.
Many patients from other districts are visiting these hospitals and the volunteers are guiding them to meet the doctors, helping them to shift them to wards or the casualty department.
If a patient is alone, they contact their family members and even provide food to the patient.
In Capital Hospital, on an average about 600 antigen tests and over 1,000 RT-PCR tests are being conducted daily.
“Once a patient is found to be positive and is asymptomatic or has mild symptoms, they are not allowed to meet the doctors.
We then connect with the doctors on their behalf, collect the prescriptions, get the medicines from the store on the hospital campus and provide those to them,” said Sarangi.
The Covid patients in serious conditions are also being shifted to the isolation ward by the members of Sahaya.
This apart, Capital Hospital officials have provided masks to the NGO for distribution among the patients and attendants who are found without any face cover.
“We have three e-rickshaws with dedicated drivers. Sahaya members are moving on the entire campus in the e-rickshaws and are creating awareness to wear masks and maintain social distancing to ensure every patient and their attendants are safe,” Capital Hospital Director Dr Laxmidhar Sahoo told TNIE.
Admin feeds strays, urges locals to join in
JAJPUR: With the ongoing lockdown making it difficult for stray animals to find food, Jajpur district administration has decided to provide assistance and feed them while appealing the general public to join the initiative.
On Saturday, a team of officials led by Jajpur Sub Collector Jyotisankar Mohapatra distributed bananas, bread and chickpea to atleast 1,000 monkeys and over 100 stray dogs and cows at Mahavinayak and Chandi temples in Chandikhole here.
“Both Mahavinayak and Chandi temples are tourist places and thousands of monkeys and other stray animals depend on visitors for food. Now with the shrines closed, these animals are going hungry,” Mohapatra said, adding that the administration will continue to feed strays in and around the temples. He also appealed to locals to extend a helping hand.
“We are appealing to people to feed stray animals in their respective localities,” he said.