Non-COVID services to resume at Gandhi Hospital from August 3

50,000-odd patients were admitted at hospital during the first and second waves

July 27, 2021 09:17 pm | Updated July 28, 2021 11:05 am IST - Hyderabad

Gandhi Hospital is the only government-run tertiary care health facility apart from Osmania General Hospital to provide free services to patients.

Gandhi Hospital is the only government-run tertiary care health facility apart from Osmania General Hospital to provide free services to patients.

Non-COVID services are set to resume at Gandhi Hospital from August 3. This holds significance as it is the only other State-run tertiary care health facility apart from Osmania General Hospital (OGH) where super speciality services are provided under one roof, free of charge.

Orthopaedic (bones), nephrology (kidneys), gynaecology and obstetrics, paediatric (health issues of children), and several other specialist doctors provide services there.

Before COVID-19 pandemic hit the State, around 1,800 to 2,000 in-patient beds used to be occupied per day at Gandhi Hospital, and 3,000 to 4,000 people used to consult doctors there on out-patient (OP) basis every day.

The hospital was turned into an exclusive COVID treatment facility towards the end of March last year. With that, patients suffering from non-COVID medical complications had to opt for OGH for free super specialist services.

First wave

Gandhi Hospital was the only healthcare facility across the State where COVID patients were admitted until private hospitals were given the permission to attend coronavirus cases.

Around 35,000 patients with mild, moderate and severe form of the infectious disease underwent treatment free of charge at the government hospital. A dedicated team of senior and junior doctors, nurses, para-medical staff, sanitation staff, and others provided COVID services.

Junior doctors at the hospital staged protest in November demanding non-COVID services to be resumed since their exposure was limited and they were not getting trained in attending any other complication. Non-COVID services resumed in November third week.

Second wave

When the COVID cases started to shoot up again during the deadly second wave, the tertiary care health facility was turned into a COVID-only treatment hospital around the third week of April. Nevertheless, finding a bed at the hospital was tough for several weeks. Patients used to wait in ambulances till their admission was cleared.

“Around 15,000 critical COVID patients were admitted here during the second wave,” said T. Prabhakar Reddy, nodal officer at the hospital.

Hospital superintendent M. Raja Rao said that all of the 1,890 beds were completely occupied during the peak of the second wave. When the coronavirus cases were declining, the number of patients with Mucormycosis started to rise. Around 1,600 patients with Mucormycosis were admitted. Of them, over 1,100 were operated on.

Now, with both COVID and Mucormycosis cases on the decline, the patient rush has come down. Around 380-400 COVID patients are at the hospital on any given day in the past one month.

“We will start non-COVID services (OP, IP and emergency services) at Gandhi Hospital from August 3,” said Dr Raja Rao. The possibility of a third wave leading to surge in the patient load, however, continues to linger in the minds of doctors.

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