Social distancing goes for a toss at Delhi’s RML testing centre

A middle-aged man’s repeated coughs while answering queries at the registration counter of RML Hospital’s Covid testing centre draws a sharp reaction from Ramesh Nand, who is standing a few spots behind him.

A middle-aged man’s repeated coughs while answering queries at the registration counter of RML Hospital’s Covid testing centre draws a sharp reaction from Ramesh Nand, who is standing a few spots behind him.

On Thursday afternoon at RML, over three dozen patients and their relatives stood behind each other, with little distancing. (HT photo)

The seemingly ill man has coughed right into the speaker installed on the glass shield that separates patients from the staff jotting down details.

“You’ll infect even those who are healthy,” 45-year-old Nand tells the man, who has symptoms and is getting himself tested.

Nand, a resident of west Delhi’s Janakpuri, is at this central Delhi hospital to get his cousin tested for Covid-19.

“I have left my cousin in the car and standing in his place in the queue. It is better I get infected than have my diabetic cousin risk his life in this queue,” Nand said.

At RML Hospital’s testing centre, which has been testing 400 Covid-19 patients every day since early June, social distancing barely exists. There isn’t anyone to enforce distancing either at this screening centre, the busiest in Delhi.

On Thursday afternoon, over three dozen patients and their relatives stood closely behind each other in two queues or huddled together at different spots in a small space covered by a green fibre roof.

BUSIEST SCREENING CENTRE

Located near Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, this central government-run hospital has 157 beds for Covid patients, of which 146 (93%) were occupied as of 5.20pm on Thursday, according to the Delhi Corona app. Among government hospitals, only Safdarjung Hospital, with close to 98% occupancy, has a greater availability to occupancy ratio of beds in Delhi.

The hospital is equipped with 14 ventilators for Covid patients, of which three were in use as on Thursday evening. Overall, this hospital has about 1,500 beds

RML was the first to be recognised as Covid-19 treatment facility in Delhi and has been the busiest screening centre. It was also the first hospital to detect a Covid positive patient on March 2.

The hospital tests around 400 people every day. Its timing was reduced to 9am-5pm since early June until when it would offer round-the-clock testing services.

According to hospital authorities, the RT-PCR machine in the hospital has a capacity of 350 samples a day, which was stretched to 400.

The testing centre receives samples from symptomatic as well as asymptomatic patients and those who need to get Covid test done before undergoing treatment and surgeries for non-Covid ailments.

NON-COVID PATIENTS AT RISK

It were the asymptomatic and non-Covid patients who complained the most about non-existent social distancing.

Surender Kumar, a 61-year-old heart patient who has been visiting the hospital for the last seven years and has a pacemaker, lay on a stretcher on one corner of this testing space for over two hours even as his son kept walking in and out of the queue.

“For admission to the emergency ward of the hospital, we have been asked to get tested for Covid. My father hardly has any symptoms of Covid, but now I am worried he’ll contact the disease going through the process,” said his son, Arun Kumar. His father is here to get himself admitted after chest pain.

Kumar pointed to the process one has to go through before submitting the swab for tests.

Patients have to note down details such as phone and Aadhaar numbers on a paper and hold it in front of them so that the staff can see them. But most people were seen putting the paper against the glass shield.

The patients are required to answer a few queries in another queue. A speaker fixed to the glass shield facilities the conversations.

Most patients placed their mouths within inches of the speaker to be audible. A few literally stuck their mouths in it.

“We have taken all precautions at home to ensure social distancing, but we are exposed to infection at a place where the most caution should have been taken,” said Mahesh Kumar, nephew of a 48-year-old Pushpa who lay on another stretcher nearby.

Pushpa has no symptoms of Covid, but needs to take the test which is required before she undergoes a surgery for a backbone fracture she suffered a week ago.

‘WILL MOVE TO A SPACIOUS AREA’

Dr Minakshi Bhardwaj, medical superintendent of the hospital, said efforts were on to sensitise people about the need to maintain social distancing.

“We have tried positing more guards but the situation is similar. The people themselves have to understand the importance of social distance and maintain it in the form of a serpentine line or separate queue,” said Bhardwaj.

The MS said efforts are on to move the screening centre to a more spacious area in the next 10 to 15 days.

Lying on stretchers, Pushpa and Kumar were still luckier than most other patients and their relatives.

Tek Chand, a 78-year-old man who was here with his wife for the test, sat at a gap of one chair from each other even as people ahead and behind them stood close to each other.

The elderly couple had decided to take the test because their neighbour had tested positive.

“We know it is futile to attempt social distancing but we are trying. There is a high chance these steel chairs are infected, but we just want to be sure that there was no compromise from our end,” said Chand.

Some patients and relatives sat under trees nearby or in their cars while waiting for their chance.

Then there was 37-year-old Naseema Begum who stayed far away from queue even as her daughter, Noor, tended to her.

“I have severe cough and breathing problems, so I am staying away from others so that they don’t get infected. But there should have been a separate section for the people with no signs of infection,” Begum said.

The lone visible security guard, meanwhile, sat in one corner without bothering anyone.