BENGALURU : With Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa asking officials to gear up to face a possible Covid-19 third wave in the State, experts opine that the State Government should invest on strengthening medical staff. Experts have suggested that the government should increase the number of medical and paramedical staff if it has to fight the third wave effectively.
They have asked the government to dig out a document that a technical committee presented to the government during the first wave on the number of doctors, nurses, paramedical and other staff required to tackle the pandemic.The committee, headed by former BMRCL Managing Director Ajay Seth, had prepared the report giving a break up of the medical staff required to fight the pandemic.
A committee member said that keeping in mind the rising cases, the committee had calculated the number of doctors, nurses and para-medics needed. The panel had calculated that one doctor is needed for every 100 active cases and one nurse for every ten patients. In the ICU, for every two patients one nurse is needed and for every six patients one doctor is needed. But in reality, a doctor in the ICU oversees 10-15 patients, while one nurse handles over 20-30 patients.
Dr Prasanna HM, president, Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes- Association (PHANA), Karnataka, said, “The government has not even ensured sufficient staff based on the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare guidelines. It is investing on ventilators, ICUs and oxygen concentrators, but not on hiring trained staff to operate these machines.”
A health department official said the proposal was placed before the government to ask RGUHS to pool in the workforce and to train students in handling these machines. It has also been suggested to the government to train MBBS and other medical students on handling machines like ventilators so that they can be put to service immediately.