Bihar private hospitals’ help sought to screen patients

Piyush Tripathi | TNN | Updated: Apr 8, 2020, 12:15 IST

Patients wait for their turn near the Tata ward of PMCH on Tuesday

PATNA: Moving a step ahead in combating the Covid-19 pandemic, the state health department has decided to involve private hospitals to screen patients with severe respiratory problems.
Health department principal secretary Sanjay Kumar wrote a letter to all district magistrates on Monday asking them to take the help of private hospitals for screening of patients with influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI).
The health department principal secretary said that this move is aimed at having a sharper focus on community and facility-level surveillance for symptomatic cases having ILI and SARI to check the spread of Covid-19 in the state.
“In view of the magnitude of Covid-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need for effective and immediate intervention to implement ILI and SARI surveillance in public and private healthcare facilities. To involve private sector in the surveillance activity, you (district magistrates) may like to hold a meeting with district representatives of Indian Medical Association (IMA) and representatives of major private hospitals in the district,” the letter mentions.
The letter further reads, “ILI and SARI surveillance will be done in hospitals where majority patients get admitted for severe respiratory problems. ILI surveillance will be conducted in flu clinics, recently operationalized in all public health care facilities or general outpatient department (OPD) of private hospitals. All medical college and hospitals, district hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals and private hospitals will act as sentinel sites for ILI and SARI surveillance.”
As of now, private hospitals and testing centres were kept out of the purview of the state government. All government health establishments have Covid-19 isolation wards and the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) in Patna is the lone ‘dedicated health’ facility for Covid-19 treatment. The health department has also issued a notification for making ANMMCH, Gaya as the second dedicated Covid-19 hospital in the state.
As far as testing for Covid-19 is concerned, it is presently being done at Rajendra Medical Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRI), Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, AIIMS- Patna, Patna Medical College and Hospital and Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).
Patna district epidemiologist Prashant Kumar told TOI that a meeting was held on Tuesday with around 40 private hospitals in the district to discuss the mechanism to report acute respiratory cases.
“It might be possible that many people with symptoms like Covid-19 are not coming out due to social factors. But they will surely visit nearest private hospital, if the intensity of the ailment increases. Accordingly, private hospitals have been asked to inform the state health society about acute respiratory cases in a particular format. This will prevent chances of community spread of the disease as well as improve the testing scenario in the state,” Dr Prashant said.
Earlier, the Centre had issued an advisory on March 20, asking all public and private hospitals to set aside beds, preparation isolation facilities, procure sufficient number of ventilators, high-flow oxygen masks and mobilize additional manpower to step the readiness to fight Covid-19.
Private hospitals have welcomed the move of involving them in the mammoth exercise. Dr Talat Halim, regional director (east) of Paras Health Care said his hospital already has three isolation wards, a flu corner and 10 ventilators ready as preparatory set-up. “The move to involve private hospitals is the need of the hour as it will increase the search as well as treatment capacity for fighting the disease. We have also applied to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting tests for Covid-19 and awaiting a nod for the same,” Dr Halim said.