HYDERABAD: Doctors at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) suspect that 19 of their medical professionals contracted Covid-19 during the treatment of a heart patient, who was admitted to the hospital’s ICU for two days and eventually tested positive for the virus.
The patient, who was admitted to NIMS in the last week of May after he showed Covid-19 symptoms, tested positive after which he was transferred to Gandhi hospital.
“Since doctors and nurses were not given PPE kits in the ICU initially, it is likely that one of the resident doctors contracted the virus. Now, it is mandatory for the staff to wear PPE in the ICU,” a resident doctor at NIMS said.
However, this situation is not exclusive to NIMS; similar problems persist at all non-Covid hospitals, such as Petlaburj Maternity Hospital and Osmania Medical College (OMC). At OMC, whose students work at various government hospitals, 32 PG students tested positive as on Friday, the Telangana Junior Doctors Association said.
Many healthcare professionals believe that by virtue of being a non-Covid hospital, both the staff and the administration lowered their guard, which led to the current situation. “We were not given the HCQ drug. Ideally, we should have started the dose in May as the OPD was to reopen. I wore a mask and gloves, and was physically distanced from patients, yet I got the virus,” a healthcare staffer at NIMS said.
Many willfully skipped the same. “The HCQ drug course is seven weeks long. Within the hospital, 60 per cent of the PG doctors completed it, but the rest did not because of the confusion about its efficacy. Now, the WHO is again recommending it and people are using it,” another junior doctor from Niloufer Hospital said.
Docs seek rehab plan for infected health staff
Additionally, only staff of emergency wards are given PPE kits, apart from those of isolation wards for Covid-19 suspected cases. “Those in the ward and on OPD duty don’t have PPE or high-grade masks. Furthermore, we all assemble to eat and rest in the same cafeteria or rest-rooms which is a common infection point,” he added.
Meanwhile, doctors’ associations are demanding that a proper plan be put forth to rehabilitate those infected by the virus. “If the USA’s medical professionals, despite having much better healthcare infrastructure and less population density, are falling prey to Covid-19, how do they expect Indian medical professionals not to be affected? That too, we are using lower-grade PPE but are dealing with a much higher case load,” asked Dr Lalu Prasad Rathor, president of the Telangana Government Doctor Association.
He said as several doctors and staff who contract Covid-19 are older and may not recover, the government must assure them a compensation package. So far 32 healthcare professionals have tested positive in OMC affiliated colleges and 19 at NIMS.