With doctors treating COVID-19 patients being at high risk of contracting the infection, the State Health Department has launched an ICU telecart that will enable doctors to provide treatment to patients from a distance.
Donated under CSR funds by a private company to the government, the ICU telecart facility helps protect the entire medical team dealing with the infected. Doctors treating positive patients do not have to be in isolation wards and COVID ICUs.
The proposed solution helps patients in quarantine get emotional support from counsellors and stay in touch with their families through videoconferencing. Also, the family can be part of the doctor consultations.
Launching the facility, Health Minister B. Sriramulu said it will initially be installed at Victoria and K.C. General Hospitals. Addressing complaints of non-release of dead bodies without COVID testing, Mr. Sriramulu said that the delay was owing to the increased load of COVID-19 testing in the State. Experts have discussed the same in a meeting with the Chief Minister who has ordered for an increase in the number of testing labs. This should resolve the issue, he said.
“We are also contemplating the conduct of plasma therapy in all districts. The government has also decided to reserve two ambulances for every ward to address the issue of non-availability and will procure more ambulances on rent if the existing ones are insufficient,” he said.
Salaries of contract doctors hiked
The State government on Thursday issued a notification hiking the salaries of the 507 contract doctors by ₹15,000 on the condition that they should not insist on regularisation as it cannot be done due to “technical issues.”
Following this, Health Minister B. Sriramulu appealed to them to withdraw their resignations.
However, the contract doctors said what they want is regularisation of services. “While we had also demanded equal pay for equal work, our main demand in regularisation of services. We are performing frontline COVID-19 duties and regularisation is our rightful demand as we have been working for years on contract,” said Nithin Kuamr, a PHC doctor from Hassan.
In a statement, the contract doctors said they will go ahead with their protest and stop work from July 8 as planned earlier.
