25 docs come forward to help in Covid care after Gurugram admin’s appeal

A week after the Gurugram administration appealed to private medical staff for help, some 25 doctors and other healthcare staff have come forward to help in Covid-19 management, according to officials on Monday

A week after the Gurugram administration appealed to private medical staff for help, some 25 doctors and other healthcare staff have come forward to help in Covid-19 management, according to officials on Monday.

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Prashant Panwar, additional deputy commissioner, Gurugram, said, “We have received inputs from 25 health professionals, who want to help in managing the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. We are screening their profiles, to decide where they can be deployed — tele-consultation, online consultation, or in the additional bed facilities that are being added.”

Panwar, the nodal officer in the project, said that all 25 healthcare professionals will provide services, depending on their time and availability. “As the number of health professionals are still low, they will be judiciously deployed for different services so that everyone is helped. We hope that more doctors will come forward in the future.” he added.

Last week, the district administration had appealed to private doctors, retired medical professionals, and students to come forward and help in managing Covid-19 cases. The district administration, through social media, had put out an appeal, stating, “The Gurugram administration requests for volunteer doctors, nurses and MBBS students who are fit and willing to provide their services in public health facilities. We appeal to such professionals to come forward at this hour of need… We would be immensely grateful for your support, to help us treat our residents.”

Meanwhile, doctors from the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Gurugram chapter, said that they are ready to help the government with additional doctors, but are unable to help due to lack of oxygen supply.

Dr Sarika Verma, secretary, IMA, Haryana chapter, said, “All private doctors are ready to come forward and help the health department in managing the rising Covid-19 cases, but our hands are tied. Most patients in hospitals need oxygen, which is not always available. Even if there are additional beds and private doctors, we would not be able to do much unless there is enough oxygen available... Gurugram has approximately 4,000 private doctors at various hospitals, and it can be doubled, but first, the existing beds should have sufficient oxygen supply.”

At present, Gurugram has an allocation of 35 metric tonnes (MT) of medical oxygen.

Commenting on the concerns, Panwar said, “We are continuously working to increase the oxygen quota of the district. We have an additional capacity of 5 MT of oxygen (over already allotted 35 MT), and more will be supplied by the oxygen express. The situation should improve in the next two to three days, but meanwhile, I appeal to the doctors to come forward and help…”

Meanwhile, Gurugram reported 3,037 fresh Covid-19 cases and 14 deaths on Monday. The active cases in the district now stands at over 37,000. The recovery rate is at 71.69%, while the fatality rate is 0.38%.