KGMU suspends classes, cancels staff leave

LUCKNOW: After a resident doctor tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday, the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) decided to suspend all academic activities

LUCKNOW: After a resident doctor tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday, the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) decided to suspend all academic activities and restrict the number of patients in the OPD from Thursday.

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“All classes, including MBBS, nursing, BDS and paramedical, will remain suspended while leaves of all teachers, doctors, residents and non-clinical staff have been cancelled till further orders,” said Dr Sudhir Singh, spokesperson, KGMU. There are over 3,000 students at KGMU.

Nurses and doctors will also remain on call and they can be asked to perform duties anytime, if the need arises. To reduce patient footfall, the OPD registration timings have been limited till 11am, which was earlier till 12.30pm. The doctors will also be advising patients who have elected operations listed to postpone if it does not have any threat in postponing.

“Our teams are ready to cater any medical situation,” said Dr Ved Prakash, HoD, pulmonary critical care medicine. He has prepared a team of trainers who are training other staff on dealing with coronavirus suspects/patients.

KGMU gets over 7,000 patients everyday and OPDs are virtually packed between 9 am and 1 pm, which is a risky condition for spread of infection. “Patients can opt to postpone certain diagnostic tests such as annual profile as this won’t harm them,” said Dr PK Gupta, former president Indian Medical Association, Lucknow chapter.

Similar crowd management plans are in place at other hospitals in the city. Fever clinics have been started at Civil and Lok Bandhu hospitals and Lohia institute.