BENGALURU: There is a sense of alarm among healthcare professionals across the state as they believe that a tsunami of COVID- 19 cases may swamp the healthcare system anytime soon and they have only around 500 personal protection equipment (PPEs), while they need at least 5,000.
“There is a severe shortage of PPEs. We can manage now as we are in the second stage of the outbreak. But very soon, we may reach Stage 3 and if the state government doesn’t gear up and bring us PPEs, all healthcare professionals are at risk,” said a senior doctor, who has just come out of a COVID-19 block at an isolation hospitals. As per protocol, a 100-bed hospital needs a minimum of 1,000 PPEs. At present, healthcare workers follow a roster system, where one set of workers go into a COVID block for a week and then quarantine themselves for two weeks.
Later, they get to visit home for another week. “The government needs to look into this too. If the cases rise, we might struggle to find personnel. There is no option but to follow the roster system, otherwise we will have more cases from the medical community,” said Dr Rajesh Muniyappa (name changed). The state government has decided not to call house surgeons or doctors over 60 years old to handle COVID cases, while roping in doctors from other streams, like gynaecology and orthopaedics, said a health department source.
A nurse from KC General Hospital said that she has moved out of her house completely and is staying with her colleague in a small room, to avoid infecting her husband, six-year-old child and in-laws. “I have no option but to do this as my son is asthmatic and I have immunocompromised in-laws. Though we are on 14-day quarantine, I don’t want to risk it,” she said.
As health department officials have been saying that they will be roping in private staff, most of the private hospitals have sent their personnel back to their hometown immediately after their services were asked to be shut, said another doctor from a hospital in Mangaluru. Meanwhile, the state government has also provided health workers with the drug hydroxychloroquine. They will be using this in case of any emergency or symptoms among healthcare professionals.