Ever since patients who tested positive for COVID-19 began getting treated at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) from March onwards, 107 patients with chronic kidney diseases from across South Tamil Nadu have been provided with dialysis treatment.
In all, 191 dialysis sessions have been completed at the COVID-19 speciality hospital, a wing of GRH. This is apart from the 3,000 odd dialysis sessions for those who do not have COVID-19, said Dean, GRH, J. Sangumani.
To date, 63 of the 107 patients have been from Madurai, he said. “A lot of others have been from other parts of south Tamil Nadu. These include a majority of patients from Sivakasi and Ramanathapuram. The rest are from Sattur, Rajapalayam, Virudhunagar, Dindigul, Sivaganga, Batlagundu, Karaikudi and Kodaikanal,” he said, adding that 19 of these patients were women.
Dr. Sangumani said that various private hospitals in and around Madurai district have also referred their COVID-19 positive patients to GRH’s COVID-19 speciality hospital for their routine dialysis treatment -- they have had 57 such cases.
Head, Nephrology department, GRH, R. Arul said that they currently have six dialysis machines being used at the COVID-19 speciality hospital of the GRH and a team of four medical personnel -- an assistant professor, a postgraduate doctor and two dialysis technicians -- are on shifts every week. He added that they have had as many as six patients as part of a single session of dialysis and 12 patients in a single day.
Dr. Sangumani said that despite treating patients from across south Tamil Nadu, there has been no drop in the number of non-COVID-19 patients who are being treated as well. “A lot of precautions are being taken to ensure that the patients are tended to carefully. Many of the machines that were at the COVID-19 speciality ward earlier have also been shifted to the general ward for better treatment,” he said.
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