NEW DELHI: Ever since the Delhi government decided to stop the testing of coronavirus patients at Delhi's Ganga Ram Hospital, doctors have been left scrambling to find out ways to treat non-Covid patients.
On June 3, the hospital received an order from the Delhi government asking it to stop testing of Covid patients as it was "flouting ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guidelines, as per reports in media.
Author and surgeon Dr Ambarish Satwik, in a social media post, slammed the government's decision which, as per him, has resulted in a crisis at the hospital, in the midst of a pandemic.
"Hospitals have to be allowed Covid testing prior to admission (for any ailment) to determine where to admit and treat these patients — in a designated covid ward/ICU or a covid free area," Satwik tweeted.
Thread. Consider this a plea. Busy hospitals (some of them designated covid hospitals) and labs are being probed an… https://t.co/iZRIN49QGa
— Ambarish Satwik (@AmbarishSatwik) 1591345453000
Dr Dhiren Gupta who works as consultant pediatric ICU at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital provided a glimpse into the mayhem created by the government's decision to disallow coronavirus testing.
At around 1 am on Saturday, a 12-year-old severely ill boy was brought for treatment to the hospital. The boy's family has travelled all the way from Bhind in Madhya Pradesh. However, with the hospital barred from testing, it was not possible to determine if the boy was infected with the virus.
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"So now how do I go about treating him. Should I risk sending him to another place for admission where testing can happen? Very likely he will die on his way. Unless I know the covid status, I wont be able to find a proper place (covid suspect requires a different set of precautions and place and sick child require ICU care too) and counsel the parents about his prognosis…I'm caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea," Gupta wrote in a social media post.
Gupta slammed the government's "weird decree" demanding that the hospital should be allowed to test people who are in urgent need of treatment or other high-risk contacts.
"What we already know (my 32 years of practice) about any infection is to track, trace, treat or contain but today came to know new way ie mask the reports but let the disease be unmasked. Read More – Source
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