MUMBAI: The state on Thursday made it mandatory for ambulances within Mumbai to be controlled and dispatched centrally by the BMC's disaster management department following multiple instances of hardship and delays faced by families in arranging for the vehicles. As part of the order, chief secretary Ajoy Mehta also directed that collection of swabs of suspected Covid-19 patients should be done on priority and the results given in 12 hours. He also instructed that the body of a coronavirus patient who dies should be moved out of the ward within 30 minutes and taken care of within 12 hours as per safety protocols. There have been multiple reports of hospital staffers refusing to remove bodies even hours after death. Senior officials said the directions will come into effect from May 2, and hospitals have been given a day’s time to ensure compliance.
The directors of health services have been asked to prepare a standard operating procedure for screening, transferring, admitting and discharging of patients. Each patient requiring hospital admission will be assigned a unique ID by a round-the clock onsite BMC team, where admission cannot be granted.
“There was a lot of confusion at the ground level and treatment of non-Covid-19 patients was getting affected. Complaints of non-availability of ambulances or even patients being turned away were being reported and so the fresh guidelines were issued,” said a senior official.
Under the guidelines, any patient entering hospital premises for treatment of Covid-19 or any non-Covid-19 ailments should be immediately checked into casualty or screening clinic. Hospitals may create a staging or a screening area to ensure that infection is not transmitted. “No patient is to be turned away without examination and required intervention under any circumstances," the order said.
Incidentally, an order directing all private hospitals to stay open and refrain from denying treatment to patients was passed by the BMC last week, but things haven’t eased much on ground.
The directors of health services have been asked to prepare a standard operating procedure for screening, transferring, admitting and discharging of patients. Each patient requiring hospital admission will be assigned a unique ID by a round-the clock onsite BMC team, where admission cannot be granted.
“There was a lot of confusion at the ground level and treatment of non-Covid-19 patients was getting affected. Complaints of non-availability of ambulances or even patients being turned away were being reported and so the fresh guidelines were issued,” said a senior official.
Under the guidelines, any patient entering hospital premises for treatment of Covid-19 or any non-Covid-19 ailments should be immediately checked into casualty or screening clinic. Hospitals may create a staging or a screening area to ensure that infection is not transmitted. “No patient is to be turned away without examination and required intervention under any circumstances," the order said.
Incidentally, an order directing all private hospitals to stay open and refrain from denying treatment to patients was passed by the BMC last week, but things haven’t eased much on ground.
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