Post-lockdown, outpatient services and elective surgeries have resumed in many government hospitals, resulting in an increase in the inflow of people.
Handling both COVID-19 and usual patients simultaneously has led to hospitals taking additional measures to manage crowds and ensure adherence to precautionary norms.
With the lifting of lockdown restrictions, the number of outpatients visiting government hospitals is on the rise. While the Rajiv Gandhi Government Government General Hospital (RGGGH) is now receiving 7,000 to 8,000 outpatients a day, the outpatient census at the Government Stanley Medical College (SMC) Hospital is 4,000, and around 2,500 to 3,000 at the Government Kilpauk Medical College (KMC) Hospital.
“We have started regular surgeries, and our departments are functioning in full swing. The departments have been split into two, one involved in treating COVID-19 patients and the other for normal patients,” P. Balaji, SMC dean, said. He added that they were making arrangements to create additional entry and exit points to manage the crowd flow into the trauma block.
At RGGGH, where elective surgeries have resumed after the lockdown, seating arrangements with appropriate spacing have been put in place for patients and their attendants.
Dean E. Theranirajan said stickers had been pasted on alternate seats to ensure adequate spacing and sufficient number of doctors had been posted in outpatient departments. “We have issued passes for in-patient attendants,” he said.
Doctors are insisting that people should wear masks and maintain physical distancing. At KMC, authorities said measures had been taken to ensure that adequate spacing was maintained in the general outpatient departments.
The hospital has been performing surgeries with departments such as obstetrics and gynaecology, trauma, burns, paediatrics and orthopaedics functioning as usual even during the lockdown. “We still have 10 persons coming to the hospital for one patient. People should avoid unnecessary visits. We have to ensure that there is no overcrowding to prevent transmission of COVID-19,” a senior doctor in a maternity hospital said.
