In view of the acute shortage of support staff and nursing staff in hospitals to take care of COVID-19 patients, the Health Department has decided to allow family members/friends of in-patients to remain in the ward as caregivers.
The decision has come close on the heels of an incident in Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, where an elderly and chronically bedridden patient in the COVID-19 ward, when discharged after a month, was found to have maggot-infested bedsores.
Staff shortage
The government’s attempt to hold doctors and nursing staff responsible for the incident had been stiffly resisted by doctors and nurses who pointed to the lack of support staff in COVID-19 wards.
Patients in COVID-19 wards are not allowed to have personal caregivers as part of the hospital’s protocol to prevent people from outside carrying infection into the hospitals. It was in the absence of adequate staff or family members that such serious neglect had occurred in the care of the elderly patient, it was pointed out.
In this context, the Health Department has directed hospital superintendents to allow caregivers for patients in COVID-19 wards, on consultation with the institutional COVID board. Accordingly, hospital superintendents can decide on allowing caregivers to individual patients, depending on their illness and circumstances.
Conditions
Friends or family members can act as caregivers as long as they are healthy. Previously COVID-infected persons can also be caregivers if they have completed a month since being tested negative. The caregiver will have to wear PPE kit and follow all COVID-19 protocols strictly, the directive issued by the Health Department says.
