A Central team of doctors deputed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to assess the State’s COVID-19 response and provide required assistance has lauded the State’s quarantine facilities at Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru and National Institute of Technology Karnataka at Surathkal in Dakshina Kannada.
The team, which concluded its visit on Thursday, is learnt to have declared that quarantine in these two facilities is among the model practices to be followed. The team noted that the Mysuru screening facility is excellent and declared that the ‘Critical Care Support Team Initiative’ should be emulated by other States.
“They also made suggestions on medium- and long-term measures such as strengthening human resources at health institutions, training, and mass counselling,” said Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey.
The team comprised Avdhesh Kumar, additional director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme; R.K. Gupta, consultant physician, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital; Nishant Kumar, professor (Anaesthesia), Lady Hardinge Medical College; and Anuradha Shulania, associate professor (Microbiology), Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
The team visited health facilities and institutions across the State, interacting with local and State health officials in the districts of Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mandya, Chickballapur, Hassan, and Dakshina Kannada. The team also held meetings with top health officials, including Jawaid Akthar, Additional Chief Secretary (Health and Family Welfare); Mr. Pankaj Kumar Pandey, and R. Ramachandran Rao, MD, National Health Mission.
According to Mr. Akhtar, the Central team held discussions on the State’s preparedness for COVID-19 response and reviewed the establishment of a designated structure of institutions to serve COVID-19 patients through fever clinics, exclusive COVID care centres and swab collection facilities at taluk and district levels. “The team was also apprised of the measures put in place to strengthen universal surveillance using available databases on TB, HIV patients, and other vulnerable patients. The team was informed that the per day testing capacity has been increased successfully, and that technology, along with the involvement of private health facilities, is being effectively used to increase outreach,” he said.
In Bengaluru, the team visited health facilities, including fever clinics and the designated COVID-19 Victoria Hospital. The team also visited institutions such as NIMHANS, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, and the National Institute of Virology, Bengaluru. They were updated on various innovations of the State government to strengthen health systems and surveillance, including the Critical Care Support Team and tele-ICU unit, the BBMP War Room, and the Media Bulletin Room. During its travel to other districts, the Central team visited fever clinics, quarantine and isolation wards of district and taluk hospitals, as well as microbiology labs.
