UP asks hospitals to discharge Covid-19 patients with co-morbidities only after they are found negative

NOIDA: The Uttar Pradesh government has directed all the Covid-dedicated medical colleges and hospitals in the state to discharge the infected patients with comorbidities

NOIDA: The Uttar Pradesh government has directed all the Covid-dedicated medical colleges and hospitals in the state to discharge the infected patients with comorbidities only after they are found negative for the virus. The move is aimed at reducing the fatalities due to Covid-19, officials said.

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The government order, issued by additional chief secretary Dr Rajnish Dubey on Saturday night, said that such patients should be discharged only after getting tested negative through reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and two-stage TrueNat tests.

“If the patients having co-morbidities need treatment for other ailments, they should be admitted to non-Covid hospitals after testing negative. They must not be directly sent for home isolation by the hospitals and medical colleges concerned,” the order states.

Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate Suhas LY said that all the Covid-dedicated medical facilities have been asked to follow the recent government order about discharging the patients. “It will not only reduce the case fatality rate (CFR), but will also check any possibility of fatality among the patients with comorbidities. Almost all the hospitals have been doing so since long,” he said.

Dr Rakesh Gupta, director of the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), said that over Covid-19 1,500 patients have been successfully treated at this hospital. “We have never sent any patient with co-morbidities directly for home isolation. At the time of discharging the patients, team of our doctors prepares the database of these patients and refer them to other hospitals for their further treatment,” he said.

Corroborating similar views, Ajit Kumar, joint registrar of School of Medical Sciences and Research, Sharda University, said that it is a good initiative by the UP government, as far as comorbid patients’ treatment is concerned. “Now, the district administration should talk to private hospitals for treatment of such patients at rates under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Sharda Hospital is treating Covid-19 patients which are admitted by government and has successfully treated about 2,000 patients,” he said.