Police to organise conference calls with doctors for their personnel and families

After issuing a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the daily health monitoring of their personnel to ensure timely prevention and protection from the coronavirus

After issuing a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the daily health monitoring of their personnel to ensure timely prevention and protection from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), the Delhi Police on Tuesday took an initiative to launch a tele-advice initiative, through which personnel or their relatives will be put in direct contact with a doctor for medical advice.

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According to the police, doctors from government and private hospitals in every district have volunteered for this initiative.

“As per this system, the station house officers (SHOs) and unit heads will maintain a panel with names of doctors who have offered their services,” a senior police officer said.

“If any police personnel or his/her relative has any health concerns, the SHO and the unit head will connect them on a conference call with the doctor. This round-the-clock facility will ensure that the police personnel and their families have access to medical advice at all times,” the officer said.

This will also reduce the need for testing and hospitalisation in cases in which it is not really needed, the officer said.

Anil Mittal, additional PRO of Delhi Police, said that the initiative will help reduce anxiety and fear psychosis among the personnel. “Each district police station now has access to a list of doctors in its area. In case of even minor symptoms, the police will be able to receive timely guidance. In these extraordinary times, anxiety and stress could be more dangerous than the actual infection itself. The initiative will help deal with that,” Mittal said.

So far, one policeman has succumbed to the virus and at least 125 Delhi Police personnel have been infected, said an officer aware of the matter, who didn’t want to be named.

Earlier, the police had issued an SOP for monitoring the health of its personnel. As per the SOP, any police personnel feeling unwell, suffering from cough, sore throat, fever, breathlessness or any other symptom “must immediately report” the same to the duty officer (DO) of the police station or unit where they are posted “by any means of communication”.

At the district level, the police are taking additional steps to ensure that their personnel are not infected. While health registers, masks and sanitiser at police stations are a must, in the south Delhi district, the police have begun an ‘Ayu Raksha Rath’, a vehicle that will take rounds of all police pickets in the district every day.

“The staff in the vehicle will distribute Vitamin C tablets and Ayurvedic products to all staffers deployed at the pickets,” Atul Kumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of police (south), said.

Earlier, last week, the Delhi Police commissioner, SN Shrivastava, in a video conference with reporters, had told HT in response to a question about the police’s preparedness in case of a large number of their personnel tested positive, that at least 15% of the staff had been kept on standby.