Odisha govt instructions for non-Covid hospitals to take proper care of patients

BHUBANESWAR: The health and family welfare department on Monday issued new instructions for non-Covid hospitals to take proper care of patients coming to their hospitals during this pandemic situation. It urged these hospitals to follow the general instructions to save each life.
According to the instructions, no patient shall be denied health service and no life threatening emergency procedures/treatment shall be deferred on the ground of suspicion of Covid infection. Every facility shall establish a separate fever clinic at the hospital away from the main working area.
Healthcare providers and support staff at the hospital should use appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). The department instructed the hospitals to screen all patients, all severe acute respiratory illness (SARI), influenza-like illness (ILI) and suspected Covid-19 cases and their attendants entering the hospital. Suspect of any Covid-19 case in non-Covid hospital/nursing home must be notified to the district surveillance unit.
The department asked the hospitals to establish isolation wards/sections to admit patients with SARI/ILI/suspected Covid-19 cases or persons coming from hotspot areas of the state or country. Staff posted in the isolation wards should not be deployed to the other sections of the hospital, it added.
"When a positive case is detected in any unit of the hospital, the other patients in the room must be shifted temporarily to another ward. The patients can be shifted back to the ward only after terminal sanitization. Covid positive case shall be managed in isolation ward/section till completion of treatment or referral to Covid hospital," read the instruction.
In case of patient referral, the department said, the receiving hospital must be intimated in advance. The referral record must contain details of clinical history including history of travel from or residency in hotspot areas. "All hospitals need to strictly follow the IPC guidelines issued from time to time by the state government and the Centre," said the health department instructions.