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Newly opened sample collection booth in Gzb shuts down over fears of cross-contamination
Just two days after a Covid-19 sample-collection booth was inaugurated at the Sanjay Nagar Combined District Hospital, the facility has been shut down after the
Just two days after a Covid-19 sample-collection booth was inaugurated at the Sanjay Nagar Combined District Hospital, the facility has been shut down after the first day of operation. The officials of the district health department said that the facility has been shut for now as the process can cause cross-contamination. Further, the officials are awaiting a standard operating procedure (SOP) for sample collection.
The officials, on March 7, had inaugurated the sampling booth with the help of an NGO called, Arambh Ek Pahal. The facility resembles a glass cabin with a pair of gloves hanging out. On the outside of the glass cabin, patients are supposed to arrive and their samples are to be taken by the healthcare professional sitting inside the cabin.
“The process of sampling at the booth has been stopped as it can lead to cross contamination among patients who arrive for sampling. The glass cabin will provide protection to the person taking the samples from inside. But the patients standing outside may get infected as the gloves hanging outside the glass cabin would need to be disinfected time and again,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer (CMO).
The officials during the inauguration had touted the facility as the first in UP and the first of its kind in the whole of National Capital Region(NCR). CMO Gupta said that a team of health department officials had also visited the booth to take note of the issues with the facility. During a spot visit by the HT team on March 8, the facility was found to be vacant.
“For now, we have stopped the operation and no samples are being taken. A report will be sent to the district magistrate once the team finishes inspection. The cabin will be opened for sampling only when a standard operating procedure (SOP) has been defined. Till then it will remain closed. The idea behind installing the cabin was to protect the healthcare worker from getting infected and to also reduce the number of personal protection kits. However, we realised that the patients themselves were at the risk of getting contaminated from the gloves hanging outside the cabin,” Dr Gupta added.
The officials said that the facility is not for general public, but only for patients who get a prescription from a government doctor for taking up Covid-19 sampling.
Pallavi, the chairperson of Arambh Ek Pahal, told HT on March 8 that 31 samples were taken from patients on Tuesday. She, however, was not available for comments on Thursday. The initiative was taken up by chief development officer Asmita Lal. She, however, did not take calls on Wednesday and Thursday. District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey did not take calls either.
“The operation has been stopped due to technical issues and we are holding discussion with officials who have come from Lucknow. Once they give a go-ahead, the facility will resume operation. The gloves will get sanitised after each sampling by one person who will stand outside the cabin. This will be done in order to avoid any chance of cross-contamination. This is the SOP,” said Shantanu Sharma, member of the NGO and technical head, looking after the facility.
“The rubber we are using is completely safe and provides virus protection to person inside taking the samples. But how will it react for a person standing outside needs to be seen,” he added.
