The HIMS in Hassan is facing a shortage of doctors and staff members to treat the increasing number of COVID-19 patients. At present 216 active cases are being treated in the hospital and 621 have been tested positive so far in the district. And, 15 people have died of the infection.
The problem intensified as some of the staff members, including doctors, contracted the infection recently. The HIMS administration has written to the State government seeking additional staff to handle the situation.
A doctor on duty, who wished not to be named, told The Hindu that a small group of staff members had been working hard to treat the patients. “We cannot go on like this for long. Some of our colleagues have already contracted the infection. If some more fall sick, it will be difficult to handle”, the doctor said. According to sources in the COVID hospital, many doctors have appealed to the district administration to include specialists working with the Health and Family Welfare Department to treat the patients. If they join, the responsibility could be shared among all and chances of doctors getting exposed to the virus would be reduced.
The doctors are allotted to monitor patients in three shifts. A separate team of specialists is monitoring those patients in the Intensive Care Unit. They get a break of five days after one week's duty. However, sometimes, these doctors had to attend to serious cases and surgeries at the non-COVID wing of the hospital as well.
The district administration is in consultation with private hospitals to involve them in treating the patients. If they could handle at least a few patients, the burden on HIMS would come down. “All these years, some private hospitals took many patients from government hospitals. Now, they are diverting all patients to the government hospital. They also should join the efforts to counter COVID-19”, opined a government medical officer.
V.R. Krishnamurthy, District Surgeon, said that despite difficulties, the staff members had been managing the hospital very well. “We have involved the staff from Nursing College, and D-group employees are roped in big numbers. We have also written seeking additional staff”, he said.
Further, about involving the specialists from the Health and Family Welfare Department, Mr. Krishnamurthy said they had been doing their duty in their respective hospitals. “Gradually, they too might have to handle both COVID and non-COVID patients”.
Samples galore
The COVID-19 laboratory at HIMS in Hassan is flooded with samples and hundreds of samples are pending. Many people at quarantine centres and those in the hospital are waiting for the reports of their samples.
Dr. Krishnamurthy said that the laboratory has the capacity to test 550 samples a day. “Every day we are getting more than 1,500 samples. The testing duration is four hours. Our staff members are working 24 hours to clear the pendency and clearing 800 samples a day.”
The lab is getting samples from neighbouring districts as well.
