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Panic among doctors as 75% health staffers tested positive in Chandigarh were on non-Covid emergency duty
This has pushed GMCH-32 to relax strict adherence to Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines to provide PPE kits and testing only for high-risk zones
There’s reason to worry. Twelve healthcare workers from two prominent hospitals — Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) and Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH-32) — have tested positive for Covid-19 from April 1 to April 27.
Nine (75%) were working in ‘emergency’ areas dealing with non-Covid-19 patients.
Four fresh cases were reported on Monday, all from GMCH-32. Three doctors from the anaesthesia department worked at the emergency OT and a 28-year-old staffer was in the housekeeping department.
A 26-year-old PGIMER nurse who tested positive on Sunday was working at the emergency OPD.
This has pushed GMCH-32 to relax strict adherence to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines to provide PPE kits and testing only for high-risk zones. “From today, every health worker in the emergency will get PPE kits,” BS Chavan, director principal, GMCH-32, told the Hindustan Times.
UT adviser Manoj Parida has also tweeted that the UT administrator will hold a meeting on Tuesday with the heads of PGIMER, GMCH-32, Government Multi Specialty Hospital-16, and the health secretary to discuss safety protocols within the medical campuses.
Staffers want PPE kits, mass testing
Many staffers are now starting to panic and demanding personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and mass testing of all health workers.
The first health worker to contract the infection (April 1) was a 31-year-old nursing officer from PGIMER working in the emergency section.
Two others, however, who worked in close proximity to Covid-19 patients and tested positive were attendants in the hospital’s communicable disease ward. The next day, a cook at the institute’s advanced paediatric centre was found to have contracted the infection.
However, even as the PGIMER cases seemed to be plateauing, health workers at GMCH-32 started getting infected.
Then, on April 24, as a 30-year-old attendant at the hospital’s emergency OT was tested positive, Bapu Dham Colony, where he lived, was declared an “affected area.” Two others from the same OT, a 35-year-old ward boy living in from Mauli Jagran and a staff nurse from Sector 32, tested positive on April 25 and 26, respectively.
“So many of us have tested positive and we have treated patients, interacted with staff members. We could have spread the infection to others, so test us,” says a health worker. Most of them are wary of disciplinary action so don’t want their names disclosed.
“Patients undergoing surgery should also be first tested for the virus,” he adds.
Even sanitisers are in short supply, staffers complain.
“There is only one hand sanitiser bottle for the entire OT with a staff of 40. Everyone uses one bottle and by the evening we have no sanitiser left. We are asked to use soap but while treating patients in emergency one cannot keep rushing to the washbasins to use soap,” says another health worker, also wishing to remain anonymous.
“We also need PPE kits and hazmat suits as we work in the emergency section and don’t know if a person is Covid-19 positive. Today I saw a person collecting samples and he was not wearing a hazmat suit,” he adds.
Doctors’ concerns being addressed
Meanwhile, with so many workers testing positive, BS Chavan said boosting the morale of doctors was the biggest challenge. They had their valid concerns, which were addressed, he said.
Health workers will be screened if there is a slight chance of their getting infected even if they are asymptomatic. “So more testing will be done,” Chavan added.
All precautions will be taken in surgery presuming patients could be Covid-19 positive and those going in for elective surgery will be tested first.
Chavan also denied any shortage of sanitisers or PPE in the OT.
‘How can you prove chain started from me?’
The 30-year-old OT attendant who was the first in GMCH-32 to be tested positive, in the meantime, says there is nothing to prove that the chain started from him. “GMCH-32 authorities are bluntly saying that I am the first to get infected and chain of transmission started from me. But so many staff members tested positive in such a short time. The real source of infection should be investigated,” he said.
