Delhi govt looking to ramp up services at hospitals, clinics after April 20

A countrywide lockdown till April 14 was put in place by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The Delhi government is looking at ways to scale up services at hospitals and clinics across the city after April 20, when the Central government is likely to relax certain norms in areas that fall outside the containment zones and hotspots.

A set of guidelines released by the Union home ministry on Wednesday states that all hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics, even those providing AYUSH services, will keep running during the extended lockdown period. (ANI file photo)

A countrywide lockdown till April 14 was put in place by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to contain the spread of Covid-19. The lockdown was on Tuesday extended till May 3. Till Wednesday, Delhi had witnessed 1578 Covid-19 positive cases with 32 deaths.

A set of guidelines released by the Union home ministry on Wednesday states that all hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics, even those providing AYUSH services, will keep running during the extended lockdown period.

The health ministry on March 20 had advised all hospitals – both government and private – to postpone their non-emergency planned surgeries and to maintain social distancing norms in the out-patient clinics. The guidelines had also said that patients with flu-like symptoms should be treated in a separate section.

A number of private clinics and nursing homes in the city have shut their services completely.

“Healthcare is an essential service and nobody was asked to shut OPDs, only elective surgeries were to be postponed. Healthcare services other than Covid-19 are also very important and we cannot keep the patients waiting for eternity,” said a senior official from Delhi government’s health department.

Authorised private institutions providing home care services, diagnostics, or those involved in the supply chains of hospitals will be allowed to function even inside containment areas, the guidelines said.

“The Delhi-specific guidelines will have to be framed by the government on what services to start when and in which areas. This is likely to come by April 20 after the government has assessed all the hotspots in the city,” said Dr Girish Tyagi, president elect of Delhi Medical Association.

“Many hospitals in Delhi have had to shut their services because healthcare workers are not coming in. The government has directed that their salaries be paid anyway. Just like Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, the Delhi government should give out orders to mandatorily keep OPD services running and scale up other services at least outside the containment areas,” said Dr Girdhar Gyani, director-general of Association of Healthcare Providers (India) or AHPI.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, however, says it might not be able to open up OPDs immediately.

“What would be the use of opening up OPDs if we are not able to provide any other services. And, we cannot start surgeries at the moment because we have moved patients from the AIIMS trauma centre, which has been converted into a dedicated Covid-19 treatment facility. We do not really have space to do much else,” said Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent of the hospital.

For the time being, the Delhi government also launched an app for teleconsultation. The CallDoc app can be used for 24x7 online medical consultations with general physicians and specialists for free by residents. A user can connect to a doctor on Video /Audio/Chat and can even upload their test reports for review. The doctors can upload prescriptions after consultation. Around 100 doctors have been empanelled for the service.