The three-member team of experts from New Delhi, which visited Gandhi Hospital on Thursday, was surprised to find nursing students manning the swine flu isolation wards in the hospital. The young nurses were clueless on how to handle the personnel protection equipment, safety masks and could not properly answer basic questions on personal hygiene posed by the visiting team, hospital sources revealed on the condition of anonymity.
While senior staff nurses, trained well to handle swine flu cases, abstained from duties demanding better safety precautions, the hospital management had to quickly rope in replacements at a short notice. The visiting team of doctors advised the hospital staff to lay more stress on general sanitation and personal hygiene among health care workers and general public, which was very important to curb the spread of swine flu, they said.
The expert team, consisting of Ashok Kumar and Dr. Pradeep from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) and Dr. Shashi Khare from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) suggested that authorities collect swab samples from other districts to find the exact spread of swine flu in Telangana.
Interacting with press persons after meeting Gandhi Hospital doctors, Dr. Ashok Kumar appreciated efforts of the hospital staff in admitting swine flu patients.
