MADURAI: Doctors at a private medical college hospital, one of the designated exclusive COVID-19 hospitals in Madurai, alleged that the hospital was delaying testing patients exhibiting symptoms for COVID-19 for the infection. The reason cited by the hospital management is that if any of them tested positive for the infection, the general wards of the hospital could be shut down, the hospital’s doctors told TNIE.
Several doctors alleged that the management pressured doctors to operate on such patients despite their repeated requests for COVID-19 tests.
“Recently, a 56-year-old Madurai man, who suffered minor head injury and a forearm fracture in a road accident was referred from a KK Nagar hospital on May 4. He was referred here as he was a suspected COVID-19 patient for he had high fever during the two days he was at that hospital,” said a doctor. “However, he was admitted to the general corporate ICU, not to the COVID-19 ward,” the doctor said. Sources at the hospital said that the swab samples of the patient were taken for COVID-19 testing on Wednesday night.
The doctors had prescribed COVID-19 tests, but one of the heads of the COVID-19 management team reportedly examined the patient’s chest Xray and dismissed the request for COVID-19 test, stating that he showed no sign of COVID-19, another doctor said. The doctors were scolded when they refused to operate on the patient without subjecting him to a COVID-19 test, the doctor added.
The hospital dean declined to comment on the issue.