Gurugram’s Civil Hospital tightens safety measures after doctor tests positive for Covid-19

Officials of the health department said they are strictly ensuring social distancing and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by hospital staff involved in

Officials of the health department said they are strictly ensuring social distancing and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by hospital staff involved in the testing process at the Sector 10 Civil Hospital, after a 35-year-old doctor at the sample collection laboratory tested positive to Covid-19 on Sunday.

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The process of sample collection is being further streamlined for the safety of the medical staff deployed at the help desk, said officials.

The doctor who tested positive is a lab in-charge, who was stationed at the sample collection lab to take the history of suspected patients. “Her task was to coordinate with the ENT specialists, who take samples, and lab technicians, who seal the samples for further testing,” a doctor who works at the sample collection centre said.

According to the doctor, the 8-month-old baby and husband of the affected doctor have tested negative.

During a visit to the hospital by HT earlier this week, doctors were found wearing masks, gloves and aprons, and being surrounded by people inquiring about testing. The doctor who was affected was seen sitting at a distance of one metre from the persons who were allowed to give their samples.

“We are not letting people surround the doctors who are the help desk or in the labs. It is being ensured that there are no gatherings around the help desk and suspected Covid-19 cases are taken one at a time for giving samples,” said Dr Jaswant Singh Punia, chief medical officer.

According to Punia, the staff who are taking samples are in proper PPE kits while conducting the process. He said that samples of 10 other doctors, who were in contact with the positive case, have been sent for testing.

Neeraj Yadav, infection control in-charge, said, “Per day, four to five PPE kits are being used by doctors at the lab and isolation ward. We are also spraying disinfectants thrice in specific areas to prevent contamination.”

On Tuesday, the central government directed all states to utilise financial resources in setting up dedicated Covid-19 hospitals, equipping the institutes with PPEs, ventilators and other essential equipment.

At present, the health department has 500 PPE kits for the hospital staff who are in close proximity with the suspected cases. There are 1500 viral transport media (VTM) kits through which nasal and throat swabs are being collected and is sent for testing to labs in Rohtak and Sonepat. “We have more than 10,000 masks and gloves, each. More stock will be added,” said Punia.

Dr Dhruv Chaudhary, head, pulmonary and critical care department, who is the designated nodal officer for the tertiary care treatment of Covid-19 patients in the state, said that they are still trying to find the fault lines within the system to protect hospital staff from infection . “We are trying to find the root cause so that things don’t go wrong again. We have the capacity and capability to deal with the situation, but we need to be cautious of infection control among the hospital staff,” he said.

The state is also preparing to increase facilities for patients as the number of cases has increased to 14 cases — 10 from Gurugram, two from Panipat, one each from Faridabad, Panchkula, Palwal and Sonepat.

Across the state, there are 370 isolation wards with a capacity of 31,77 beds and quarantine facility and 2,544 rooms/dormitories that can accommodate at least 10, 959 people. “We have sufficient number of isolation and quarantine facilities. For critical services at the tertiary level, we are trying to increase the facilities. We have asked all the hospitals in the state to reserve 25% of their intensive care facility for Covid-19 patients,” said Rajeev Arora, state’s additional chief secretary, health department.

Dr Chaudhary said, “We never had isolation wards except for the drug-resistant tuberculosis patients. We don’t have a set capacity and are setting it up. In Gurugram, there are only two civil hospitals, due to which there is dependency on private hospitals for primary as well as tertiary care treatment.”

Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, has been designated as the tertiary care facility for treatment of critical Covid-19 cases in the state.

According to Arora, only 464 ventilators are available at present. “We are arranging more equipment to facilitate timely treatment to critical Covid-19 patients. Also, the 800-bed National Cancer Institute has also been converted to a critical care facility for the Covid-19,” said Arora.

However, Dr Chaudhary says that only 20 in 100 patients will require critical care facilities. “Two-thirds of these 20 people will require ventilator support, while the remaining would require oxygen therapy. 80 people can be treated with proper care in the isolation ward itself. Still, we need to be equipped with additional facilities.”

According to him, considering the current situation, the state government is planning to set up high-dependency units to treat patients in large numbers.