The Government Hospital for Chest and Communicable Diseases (GHCCD), which is at full occupancy, is struggling to handle the large number of people arriving every day to get voluntarily tested for COVID-19.
As a result, the district administration has taken a call to suspend testing for the public at the hospital from Wednesday.
Scores of people have been turning up at the hospital to get tested for coronavirus in view of a rising number of positive cases in the city. This was reportedly putting immense pressure on the GHCCD hospital staff, prompting the district administration to suspend testing.
According to sources at the GHCCD, the OPD is witnessing 170 to 200 persons on average for COVID-19 testing.
According to the doctors, many are coming in for tests worried at the steep rise in cases in the city. “Some claim that their area has reported a large number of cases, and they want to get tested as they are diabetic or suffering from other health issues. Some say that they have to regularly go out of their home on work, which is why they want to get tested as a precautionary measure. While their concerns are genuine, we are short of staff to conduct testing,” a doctor said.
“For those having only fever, cold or some health issues, we are assuring them that it can very well be just the common flu, and recommend that they take basic precautions. We ask them to keep monitoring their health,” said another doctor.
Meanwhile, patients allege that even though they have some symptoms like high fever, or cold, or both, the hospital staff are reluctant to admit them or conduct tests.
“I have been suffering from fever and cold. But the hospital staff said that it could be normal fever as this is a common time for seasonal diseases. They say only a fever with constant high temperature might be considered as a sign of COVID-19,” said a person who had gone to the GHCCD for testing.
Staff crunch
According to medical staff, there are just 22 contract nurses and five permanent nurses working at GHCCD. Out of them, four are unwell and are not attending duties. The nurses say that there is a dire requirement of additional nurses as the spike in cases is putting a lot of additional pressure on them.
“At present, there are 111 in-patients in GHCCD. Apart from taking care of COVID-19 patients and persons admitted with chest-related issues, we are also monitoring outpatients. Recently, all the nurses who were recruited have been allotted to VIMS alone, but not here,” said a senior nurse, adding that an allotment of 15 to 20 nurses would alleviate some of their stress.
New testing centres
The district administration will now be conducting testing at ENT Hospital, Rani Chandramani Devi (RCD) Hospital, Regional Eye Hospital (REH) and Government Hospital for Mental Care. Rapid tests are being conducted at containment zones by medical teams, said District Medical & Health Officer (DMHO) S. Tirupathi Rao.
