THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The rising hospitalisation of Covid patients has started affecting non-Covid care, as was the case last year. Hospitals which had started functioning normally after being dedicated as Covid hospitals for almost a year have either been converted again as exclusive Covid care centres or are on the verge of becoming so.
“The non-Covid patients in intensive care were the ones who suffered the most when hospitals were dedicated to Covid treatment. It is going to be a tough decision to shift the critically ill to other hospitals,” said a doctor at the Thiruvananthapuram General Hospital (GH). The GH had resumed normal functions recently as the number of Covid patients declined. Now, Covid wards are nearly full with the district reporting 3,918 active patients.
Admissions to ICU and the number of patients requiring ventilator support have also increased over the past one week. Medical colleges, which treat the most severe cases of Covid, gave a hard time to non-Covid patients with serious health complications last time.
“We had to compromise on non-Covid care due to the surge in Covid cases. In medical colleges, we have a dynamic approach to bed management. If there is a major increase in Covid cases, we will have to make adjustments in non-Covid section,” said Medical Education Director Dr Remla Beevi. Currently, all medical colleges have resumed out-patient and casualty services, and surgeries.
“We cannot afford to ignore non-Covid care as there is a huge backlog of cases and patients requiring follow-up. We haven’t reduced the attention given to them,” said Dr Remla. As part of a prudent treatment management, medical colleges have stopped taking in Covid patients in categories A and B (those with mild to moderate symptoms).
The augmentation of ICU beds in the last one year has also helped. “Fortunately, ICU admissions for non-Covid patients were less last time. But they suffered as attention was diverted to Covid patients,” said Dr S S Santhoshkumar, deputy superintendent, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram. Dr Gopikumar P, state secretary of the Indian Medical Association, said private hospitals have requested the government to make better plans so that the treatment of non-Covid patients remains unaffected.
“Some governments have started restricting non-Covid patients. With better planning, we can have a few dedicated hospitals for Covid and non-Covid patients so that the services to the latter are not stopped. Private hospitals will follow a similar arrangement,” he said.Health Minister K K Shailaja, in a review meeting on April 9, had said that equal attention on Covid and non-Covid management was important in reducing the death rate.