West Bengal: First clinic to offer post-Covid care comes up at ID Hospital

KOLKATA: The Infectious Diseases & Beliaghata General (IB&BG) Hospital has come up with a special clinic to tend to patients who have been discharged after treatment for Covid-19 infection. Perhaps the first such specialized clinic in the country, the post Covid follow-up clinic was thrown open to patients on Wednesday at the state’s nodal hospital for Covid-19.

“This clinic is not meant for only Covid patients who received treatment at our hospital. Any patient, irrespective of the hospital that treated him/her, is welcome to the clinic in case s/he experiences any medical problem or mental issue,” Anima Haldar, principal ID&BG Hospital.
This clinic will be operational once a week (Wednesday), for now. The first patient who attended the clinic on the day of opening was a young nurse attached to a government hospital in the city. The nurse had undergone treatment at ID & BG but was being stigmatized not only in the locality but also by close relatives. Doctors said the nurse’s problem pertained mostly to mental stress. She developed depression because she was being ostracized. She was thoroughly counselled and advised regular follow-ups.
“The idea is to give medical as well as counselling support, if required, because many of those who have been cured, continue to be stigmatized,” said Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, assistant professor of community medicine, who is also in charge of the clinic.
The hospital’s Covid team will also be a part of the clinic. Doctors said that the change in the discharge policy is allowing patients with mild or moderate symptoms to go home after 10 days of symptoms’ onset without Covid negative confirmatory tests if they do not have fever for previous three days. But these patients need to be in home isolation for about a week. They also need to follow up after that.
“Some of these patients might develop health conditions that may not be related to Covid-19 infection. But due to the stigma of having been infected earlier, they face problems while seeking treatment. We have come across discharged patients neglecting conditions like hypertension or diabetes because of the same issue. Our clinic will help them,” said Bandopadhyay.