PUDUCHERRY: To deal with rising COVID-19 cases, Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), a COVID hospital would be closing down all OPDs and Special clinics from August 24 due to shortage of manpower and relocating the doctors and nursing staff from other areas to COVID care.
OPD services at JIPMER were being conducted in a limited manner, and by giving people appointments over consultations by phone or video.
However, OPD services will be shut down while the manpower will be diverted to COVID care -- in view of rising virus cases and an increase in healthcare workers also testing positive for the virus.
Medical Superintendent of JIPMER, Dr A S Badhe stated in a circular on Wednesday that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the workload has increased tremendously in the COVID block.
And, since a lot of health care workers have tested positive or is under quarantine and isolation, there has been an acute shortage of manpower.
Hence it has been decided to close all OPDS including special clinics with effect from August 24, said Dr Badhe.
He requested the Heads of Departments to not give any person an appointment from August 24 onwards.
However, teleconsultation will be available as usual for all patients, he said.
JIPMER on a daily basis caters to the needs of patients from not only Puducherry but also neighboring districts of Tamilnadu.
On average, it is attending to around 40 to 45 cases in each department in OPD. In addition, around 900 to 1000 patients are being treated as inpatients, said Dr Badhe.
Now, from the burden of increasing viral infections in both the State and the UT, there is a need to increase infrastructure as well -- like beds and ICUs and more health care workers to manage COVID patients, said Dr Badhe.
Doctors and nursing staff cannot be recruited immediately and hence they have to be relocated from other areas to the COVID care block.
At present more than 300 patients are admitted in the JIPMER COVID block and the ICUs in the COVID block are nearly full.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of patients who are critically ill are referred from Tamil Nadu.
Besides, several patients are being abandoned at the casualty ward by their relatives without even registering the patient, further burdening the hospital officials with the formalities, he added.