Skeleton staff who keep order among quarantines

Sarfaraz Ahmed | TNN | Apr 27, 2020, 04:51 IST

hands full

Nagpur: At quarantine centres, doctors and multipurpose workers from the state public health department have been playing the role of corona warriors behind the curtains just like their counterparts at government hospitals.
Badly short of hands, they have managed to run the affairs and keep things going for the last 45 days as all centres have seen number of suspected cases rise.
As of Sunday, 664 suspects are staying at MLA Hostel, Ravi Bhavan, Vanamati, Police Quarters and other places. A total of over 1,400 have been serviced by the officials since March 11.
Each quarantine centre has one duty doctor and one MPW at a time in two shifits during 24 hours.
The in-charge senior doctor is only present during the day time. It is largely upto the team of two to address all concerns and ensure suspects don't breach medical guidelines while in institutional quarantine.
In the over month and a half, the doctors had been at the receiving end of the suspects’ wrath who had been impatient to go home.
As the numbers starting climbing since April first week, the health officials had a tough time dealing with irate inmates. Reportedly, the health officials were left to handle all types of issues raised.
“Inmates would come or call and tell that their room’s bathroom was not clean. Sometimes they complained about quality of food. Regularly, they kept pestering us for early release,” said a doctor.
The doctors had to also counsel them to ensure there is no law and order problem while officially their role is limited to monitoring the inmates for symptoms and co-ordinating with hospitals or civic officials.
The centres were also monitored by a team of policemen and revenue officials. However, doctors rarely found support from them.
Senior officials said cops were asked to take a round of corridors on hourly basis. “But they rarely stepped out of their tents fearing getting infected,” said officials from one of the Centres.
The revenue officials and cops were fearful though they had been informed that inmates were just suspect cases. These doctors had been and continue to remain at high risk as several suspects ultimately turned positive.
Refusing to be identified, the officials said they had been well supported by higher authorities. “Deputy director of health services Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, civil surgeon Dr Devendra Paturkar, district health officer Dr Deepak Selokar, Dr Nitin Gulhane, Dr Anil Hazare, Dr Danish Iqbal, Dr Rajesh Debardwar, and Dr Shrikant Karode ensured we worked as a team and provide smooth functioning at the centres,” the officials said.