20-odd hospitals sealed, over 600 medics affected, 3 doctors dead
As many as 68 doctors, nurses and staff of the Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital in North-West Delhi were sent on home quarantine after a 25-year-old woman patient, suspected to have had coronavirus, died on Wednesday night. The pregnant woman allegedly did not disclose that she had travelled abroad recently and had been asked to be under home quarantine.
Similarly, 39 staff members, including doctors and nurses, of the Max Hospital in Delhi’s Saket were asked to go on self-quarantine three days ago after two patients there tested positive for coronavirus.
Twenty-odd hospitals sealed or put under restrictions, over 600 health workers, including doctors and nurses, affected and as many as three doctors dead — that’s the toll the coronavirus contagion has taken on India’s healthcare system and its frontline warriors so far. And the numbers are swelling on a daily basis, with 65 staff at the King George Hospital Lucknow being quarantined last Thursday.
In a country like India with a billion plus population, over 10,000 Covid-19 positive cases and 350 deaths so far, losing even a single medical professional when they are needed the most will weaken our determined fight against the pandemic, experts cautioned against the backdrop of the death of two doctors in Indore and one in Delhi due to the pandemic.
“It means, one fewer professional in an already-strained system, another patient to care for and, potentially, a team of colleagues who need to be quarantined,” said Dr Rajan Sharma, president, Indian Medical Association, which represents private medical practitioners in the country.
This when the doctor-population ratio in India is 1:10,926 against the WHO’s recommended ratio of 1:1000.
The risk of getting infected apart, these frontline warriors also have to do with the long working hours, uncooperative patients, lack of protective equipment and personal safety network. The IMA president said that the Government should also ensure the safety of the workers so that they feel secure and work with more zeal to save the patients.
Experts do not rule out the possibility of India having an alarming number of infected people in the coming four months. While many might still recover from mild consequences, thousands will require hospitalisation. What’s more worrisome is, even among these cases, a few are thought to have been infected outside the healthcare setting.
According to the Preventive Wear Manufacturers’ Association of India (PWMAI), to deal with the influx of patients, a minimum of 5 lakh health workers - which include doctors, nurses, paramedics, maintenance and other support staff - will be required. If a requirement of three overalls is considered for each worker each day, then about 15 lakh PPE will be required daily.
India has a little over 11.57 lakh allopathic doctors registered with the State medical councils and the Medical Council of India as on January 31, 2020 and assuming 80 per cent availability, it is estimated that around 9.26 lakh doctors may be actually available for active service. And as per Indian Nursing Council (INC) records, there are around 30.4 lakh nursing personnel registered in the country as on December 31, 2018.
The instances of the medical staffers and hospitals getting affected are coming from different States. Several private super specialty hospitals in Mahrashtra like DY Patil, KB Bhabha Hospital, Breach Candy Hospital. Hinduja Hospital, Spandan, KR Bhatia Hospital, Wockhardt, Jaslok, Nanavati and YB Chavan Hospital have been sealed or put under restrictions by the municipal authorities in the past two weeks after several staff including doctors tested coronavirus positive.
Maharashtra, the most affected State in India, saw over 96 medical staff including doctors quarantined in DY Patil hospital in Pune while at Wockhardt, 56 medical staffers, including doctors, nurses and ward boys, contracted the virus. At Jaslok Hospital, 1,005 staff members were tested, of which 21 were found infected with Sars-Cov-2, at Breach Candy Hospital, one doctor and two nurses contracted the infection while at Saifee hospital, two doctors contracted the disease through close family contacts.
In the national Capital, the Delhi State Cancer Institute has been sealed while some restrictions have been imposed on Max Hospital, Ganga Ram Hospital, GTB and LNJP hospitals after doctors and medical staff found infected due to coronavirus. As many as 250 medical staff including doctors have tested Covid-19 positive and quarantined. Of them, about 30 health workers, including doctors and nurses, of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences have been quarantined. So have been the over 100 staffers at the Gangaram Hospital and 14 of RML hospital.
Indore has become a coronavirus hotspot in Madhya Pradesh. Besides the death of the two doctors on two consecutive days, several women medicos at a Government hospital in the city too have been found coronavirus positive, involved as they were in screening people for the infection in the city. Indore is coronavirus hotspot of Madhya Pradesh.
Elsewhere, over 50 healthcare workers, including doctors and paramedical staff, have been quarantined or isolated due to their exposure to positive or suspected cases of COVID-19, within a month of the pandemic in J&K, which reported the first case on March 9. In Rajasthan, at least 50 healthcare workers were tested positive for COVID-19 and a number of hospitals have also been sealed. Doctors and nurses have also tested positive for COVID-19 in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and a number of other states and cities.
To add to their woes, in several places across the country, doctors and healthcare workers have been repeatedly complaining about inadequate masks, gloves and personal protective equipment. In Patna Medical College Hospital and Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, doctors are using HIV protection kits and surgical masks to protect themselves while treating patients. Doctors say that when healthcare workers are infected it creates a triple whammy threat.