With a medical helpline 9946992995 opened at the District General Hospital (GH) to co-ordinate medical aid distribution in the district in the wake of the flood, medicines and medical personnel were made available at various camps.
The medical helpline is run by GH in association with organisations like the Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association, Indian Medical Association, Indian Academy of Paediatrics, and other paramedical associations.
The helpline has received more than 200 calls till Saturday evening. Unfortunately, there were some 90-odd fake calls too, said Dr. Cyril G. Cherian, resident medical officer, GH. “We were able to attend to over 110 calls till evening,” he added.
The hospital utilised medicines worth more than ₹10 lakh bought from Kerala Medical Services Corporation Limited, besides purchasing drugs worth nearly ₹5 lakh from private hospitals in the first tranche to be given to people in various camps.
Packing of medicines
Packing medicines for various camps requires high-level coordination. It begins with sorting by pharmacists. Each packet has a label detailing contents. The boxes are packed according to the list of medicines required for each camp given by doctors and nurses.
A request from those behind the helpline is not to call the number for rescue operations. The number is only to co-ordinate medical aid for people who have been rescued from various places and could need emergency medical care.
The helpline with 30 lines is routed through Kollam and will be available 24 hours. A panel of 300 doctors is handling calls. They assess a patient’s present condition, disease status, their regular medicines, and the available medical help. For patients who have to be shifted to camps that have become inaccessible, the Navy’s help will be sought to air-drop medicines.
The massive work includes packing of essential medicine kits in boxes for camps taking into account the number of people there and their daily requirement of regular medicines, besides emergency medicines to be given in case of fever or injuries.
Case sheet of each patient is prepared online at the GH control room.
Since all hospitals in the flood-affected areas have become dysfunctional, there is a massive need of medicines at the control room. Doctors at GH can be reached at medfloodreliefkochi@
gmail.com . A list of essential medicines has also been prepared by doctors.
