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Cramped quarantine facilities for health care staff give rise to fear of Covid-19 spread
Many doctors and nurses working in Covid-19 designated hospitals have pointed out that common bathrooms and utensils in hostels defeat the entire purpose of quarantine
A day after the Delhi government released its home isolation guidelines, many health care workers’ unions have expressed concerns over doctors and nurses in several Covid-designated hospitals being quarantined in hostel facilities where these isolation rules are difficult to follow.
Joint Federation of Nurses, a collective of nurses working in Delhi-NCR, on Friday wrote to the Delhi government, highlighting the problems of shared bathrooms and common utensils in hostel facilities, making it difficult for health care professionals, who are either tested positive of the virus or are awaiting their results, to maintain isolation.
“We have asked the health department to move health care workers who have either been diagnosed with Covid-19 or are awaiting test results, to be moved to alternative accommodations where they can follow quarantine rules and not risk infecting others,” said Mini Joseph, joint secretary of the union.
Joseph said several health care professionals working in high-risk departments are being accommodated in hostels even during their quarantine period. With many doctors, nurses and lab workers being tested positive for the contagious disease in the national capital, the fear of health care workers infecting others is increasing, she said.
So far, 293 healthcare professionals in Delhi have tested positive for Covid-19.
The guidelines released by the Delhi government on Thursday said that if a person is tested positive for the disease, they can be home quarantined, provided they have the “requisite facility at their residence for self-isolation”.
Many doctors and nurses working in Covid-19 designated hospitals have pointed out that common bathrooms and utensils in hostels defeat the entire purpose of quarantine. They asked that even those in who are in quarantine and yet to confirm positive should be given isolated quarters till they receive their results.
A resident doctor in Delhi government’s Lok Nayak Hospital, who completed her quarantine last week, said every corridor in the hospital comprises between 10 and 12 rooms and has a common washroom.
“I had to step out in desperation because there was no other way. Thankfully, my results returned negative, but I could have infected several others with me because there was no other option. One doctor in the hostel was tested positive and was shifted to the hospital after the results came, but till then the doctor was here with all the other residents,” she said, on the condition of anonymity.
A senior Delhi government official said that ‘home isolation’ is being allowed only on a case-to-case basis after examining whether the patient can fulfil the prerequisite conditions of self-isolation in their residence.
“If a health care professional is tested positive and resides in a hostel then we will shift them to hospitals. Their health and care is important to us. And the issue of alternative accommodation for those in quarantine is being taken up with hospital administrations,” the official said.
