Patients being forcibly discharged from COVID-19 Hospitals and COVID Care Centres after 10 days in order to make way for new admissions, regardless of their health condition, is being cited as one of the major reasons behind the spike in coronavirus cases in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts.
“Only patients who test negative for COVID-19 should be discharged. But here, hospital authorities are sending even those who are COVID-19-positive to their homes without further tests, advising them to remain in home quarantine. However, there is no monitoring and those patients resume moving freely outside after being sent home,” said a senior medical officer on condition of anonymity.
Another official who The Hindu spoke to pleaded helplessness.
“The virus can remain inside for another two weeks and forcible discharge can lead to health complications for the patients as well as a further spread of the virus. We are in a helpless position due to registration of new cases. We need to ensure beds for patients who are coming to the hospital in a critical condition. That is why patients with mild symptoms are being discharged after ten days,” the official said, also requesting anonymity.
The total number of positive cases has already crossed 15,000 in Srikakulam district and 13,000 in Vizianagaram district. However, availability of beds in the two districts is hardly 6,000. This large gulf between number of beds and total cases is said to be another reason behind the government’s decision to allow home isolation for new patients.
Earlier, the government was not allowing home isolation and was testing COVID-19 patients at least three times before discharging them. However, this practice was being followed in the early weeks of the COVID-19 spread, and now the situation has changed so drastically that the government has made home isolation the only option for new patients due to non-availability of beds at designated hospitals.
Sources said that there is no mechanism for conducting a final round of tests for patients who are in home isolation. Even after two weeks, they are unable to move freely due to objections from neighbours and locals. Village volunteers will continue to treat them as positive patients until they get a negative report from the authorities. The volunteers will inform higher authorities if the patients come out from their homes without those certificates.
Lok Satta State executive president Bhisetti Babji asked the government to ensure medical kits for patients in home isolation and compulsory tests for them after 14 days of isolation. He said that the forcible discharges should be avoided from the hospitals since it would lead to spread of the disease to others within no time.
“The patients whose condition is critical after discharge cannot come to government hospitals. They will be forced to depend on private hospitals by paying hefty fees. That is why the government should ensure medical tests and only patients with negative reports be discharged from hospital,” he said.
‘10-day stay enough’
Vizianagaram District Medical and Health Officer (in-charge) T. Balamurali Krishna on Tuesday clarified that there was no need to conduct medical tests for those who have stayed at COVID hospitals for more than ten days.
“Patients who don’t have a fever continuously for three days can also be discharged as per COVID order-62. Patients who have multiple complications and are suffering from other diseases need to be discharged only after completion of final medical tests at the hospital where they are admitted,” he said.
