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With Covid-beds exhausted in Kashmir, doctors ask people to return home

Hindustan Times/Srinagar | ByMIR EHSAN, Srinagar
Jul 15, 2020 05:37 PM IST

Many pneumonia patients are sent back home till their test results come; rural areas lack high oxygen beds

With Covid-19 beds exhausted in Kashmir, doctors on duty say they have no option but to ask people wait in their homes.

(Waseem Andrabi/ HT)
(Waseem Andrabi/ HT)

Around 200 people have died due to Covid-19 in J&K and case count has mounted to 11,173. The last month witnessed a spike in cases and deaths in the UT, especially in Kashmir.

A senior doctor posted at the Bone and Joint Hospital, requesting anonymity, said, “We were to operate on two patients. However, when their tests came out to be positive we could not find beds for them at Covid-19 hospitals.”

“All beds were exhausted and we have had to move patients from one room to the next till a bed could be arranged. A bed was only arranged after two patients were discharged in the morning.’’

SITUATION IS GRIM, SAYS SENIOR DOCTOR

“Now, the places where the patients were moved are being fumigated. The situation is grim and the beds are exhausted,’’ he said.

A senior doctor at Government Medical College, who did not wish to be named, said Covid-19 cases have gone up and most people are admitted to the hospital with cases like bilateral pneumonia.

“We can’t shift them to designated Covid-19 wards as testing gets delayed. We have no other option but to ask them to take medicines at home till their test results are out,’’ he said.

ASYMPTOMATIC CONTACTS SENT HOME

A nodal officer in Srinagar, on condition of anonymity, admitted that many Covid-19 patients were being treated in their homes. “Most asymptomatic contacts of positive patients are told to stay at home. Doctors have already asked the government to allow home quarantine for Covid-19 patients but the government is yet to take a final call,’’ the officer said.

The two medical colleges in Baramulla and Anantnag have limited beds with high flow oxygen. “Covid-19 patients who are in a bad state are referred to designated hospitals in Srinagar as they require high-flow oxygen, which is not available in our hospital,’’ a doctor at Baramulla Medical College said, adding that many patients were ask to return as they haven’t been tested for Covid-19.

“We don’t know what to do with such patients. The government should increase beds with high-flow oxygen in rural areas with the number of cases increasing,’’ the doctor said.

Fresh restrictions and red zones were declared in different areas of the Valley after a surge in Covid-19 cases. Srinagar has reported the highest number cases (1,933) and 46 deaths.

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