On Monday, A. Nirmala, Dean of Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, Coimbatore, received a call from Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Railways, who conveyed appreciation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for effective COVID-19 management by the hospital.
The hospital, which handles COVID-19 cases from Coimbatore, Tiruppur and the Nilgiris, has so far treated 251 cases, of which 214 have recovered and got discharged from the hospital as on Tuesday. Thirty-seven persons from the three districts are undergoing treatment at the hospital as on Tuesday. Also, no death due to COVID-19 has been reported at the hospital.
“Initially we did not expect that many cases of COVID-19 would emerge in the district. The hospital was declared as nodal treatment centre for the disease on March 23, following which the bed strength for these cases was increased to 400,” the Dean said. The hospital treated patients who were in a range of risk categories. While 65 of them had co-morbid conditions, 36 were aged below 10. The youngest COVID-19 patient was 10-days-old while the oldest was an 87 year-old hemiplegic patient.
None of the patients admitted to the hospital had Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) and nobody was put on ventilator support.
According to T. Ravikumar, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, the hospital even arranged a crèche for the children of COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Nirmala said none of the medical team contracted the disease while handling patients.
As many as three doctors worked in three floors of the COVID-19 ward of the hospital for a shift of eight hours. Four staff nurses and four sanitary workers also worked in each floor for a shift.
“Ours was the first hospital to offer counselling by a psychiatrist for patients from day one,” said Dr. Ravikumar.
While a team led by Assistant Resident Medical Officers Mythili and Parimala took care of the food comprising a healthy menu for the patients, Dr. Tamilselvan coordinated the stay and quarantine of medical teams who completed duty for a week.
Dr. Ganesamoorthy, nodal officer for COVID-19, coordinated other activities.
“It was a team effort that led to good results in COVID-19 management. In one of the cases, wherein a whole family contracted the disease except a two-year-old child, our staff took care of the boy till his parents and family members recovered,” said Dr. Nirmala.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswamy, Health Minister K. Vijayabaskar and Health Secretary Beela Rajesh too have appreciated the hospital’s COVID-19 management.
