Assam likely to issue SOP for covid management soon

The state health department deployed out a series of standardized measures for covid management in government hospitals after the news of 12 deaths in Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on a single day got disclosed on Monday.

Time8 Desk
July 1, 2021
11:24 am

GUWAHATI: The state health department deployed out a series of standardized measures for covid management in government hospitals after the news of 12 deaths in Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on a single day got disclosed on Monday. The reports of mentioned deaths came as a shock to the health department, particularly when the positivity rate in the state had saturated down to almost 2.01% for a while.

State health minister Keshab Mahanta held a hospital review meeting on Tuesday in the presence of principals of all the government medical colleges.

Assam director of medical education, Dr. Anup Kumar Barman stated that, “Senior doctors up to the rank of associate professor and professor may be asked to mandatorily attend night duty. A new SOP will be published on hospital monitoring soon. Supervision of senior doctors will be increased.”

Health officials informed that on multiple such instances, a figure of critical covid patients lose their lives on a single day. Even though it is reported that GMCH occurrence was not due to the casualness of the hospital but npntheless, a better and strict management is necessarily mandatory. Medical colleges have been assigning duties to doctors based on the manpower accessibility.

Mahanta paid a sudden visit to the GMCH at midnight hours on Tuesday which led him to seek details and information of the on-duty doctors at night time and afterward insisted on keeping a track by more senior doctors at night. However, doctors above the age of 60 years might not be positioned in covid duty in ‘red zones’ as per government protocols.

Meanwhile, the GMCH authorities put the cause of sudden deaths in the hospital was due to low oxygen saturation and delay in hospital admission, the health department would not like to witness such repetitions again in any hospital.

“As a follow-up action, we are planning to introduce a uniform system in all medical college hospitals. Despite varying manpower, it will be on similar lines,” added Barman, a hospital authority.

Mahanta directed that senior doctors of the hospital will keep a track of both day and night shifts. A help desk will be put up to aid attendants at medical college hospitals and covid hospitals.

Mahanta furthermore said,”Every Covid hospital will now publish a Covid bulletin regularly, with figures of admitted and discharged patients. The help desk will give every detail to the family members of the Covid patients, including oxygen saturation”

Meanwhile, Indian Medical Association (IMA) also recommended the Assam government to arrange resourceful doctors around the clock in all hospitals. IMA’s state branch manager said, “Manpower recruitment also needs to be kept in mind, as ICU beds have been increasing since the outbreak of the pandemic. Hospitals need more health staff for critical care.”