As almost every second hospital and clinic across the country has been converted into Covid-19 facilities, it is the non-Covid patients who are at the receiving end. They are facing the impact of this pandemic with deteriorating health conditions due to inaccessibility for screening, diagnostics and treatment, health experts have pointed out.
Dr Anil Jain, pulmonologist, National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (NITRD), Delhi, said, “As the novel coronavirus outbreak continues to push the country’s healthcare systems, substantial health service disruption in the country has decreased clinic visits by TB patients drastically.
“Thus, it is of high importance that patients should get access to screening, diagnostics and utilisation of advanced techniques like automated diagnostic instruments for early detection and treatment to reduce TB transmission and deaths.”
According to the Central TB Division’s Nikshay portal, capturing the real-time data, the diagnosis of new tuberculosis cases had witnessed a decline during the pandemic due to the inaccessibility of screening and diagnostic facilities.
Dr Parimala Devi John, Consulting gyne specialist and colposcopist, Fortis Hospital talked about the impact of lockdowns and travel restraints on cancer patients.
“Lack of timely diagnosis and treatment also the fear of contracting the infection had led to a surge of advanced cases across the country.”
Haematology specialist Dr Rahul Bhargava who had started Virtual Hospital Cancer Rounds, was of the opinion that the telemedicine facility as one-step destination for online consultation and cancer treatment management has been of great help to the cancer patients amid Covid pandemic.
“During the initial lockdown phases, most of the scheduled chemotherapy sessions and cancer surgeries were postponed. Even after the lockdown was relaxed, cancer patients remained in the fourwalls, as they are at a greater risk of Covid infections.
“ In such a situation, our virtual hospital continued delivering services and reaching out to the patients facing uncertainty,” said Dr Bhargava, who is also the serving Director of Fortis Hospital’s Bone Marrow Transplant facilityDr. SPGanesan — Hitech Diagnostics, Chennai felt that with the government’s decision to lift the lockdown and opening of OPDs, there is a need to understand the importance of taking strict precautionary measures and follow guidelines for safe specimen management.
“Proper collection of specimens is the most important step in the laboratory diagnosis of infectious diseases. Yet, equal importance needs to be given to staff and patient safety. It is important to treat every specimen as potential Covid specimen and take proper precautions while handling and collecting blood & urine samples,” he added.