Wellness centre to monitor Covid patients post recovery in Madurai

MADURAI: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) on Sunday unveiled its ‘Post-Covid Wellness Centre’, an outpatient centre for the treatment and monitoring of the patients who had recovered from Covid-19.

Some of the recovered/discharged Covid-19 patients suffer from health conditions that had developed during the infection, a senior doctor at GRH said. The conditions either persist or recur days or weeks after discharge, he added.

Some of the persistent/recurrent health conditions noticed among the patients included insomnia, body ache, irregular menstruation, gangrene (death of tissues due to infection), lower oxygen saturation levels, and stroke, he added.

The hospital’s new initiative would monitor such cases, he said, adding that post-discharge follow-up could aid in the pandemic study.

Dean of the hospital Dr J Sangumani told TNIE that the initiative would help patients, who develop conditions such as depression, secondary lung infection or (in some cases) arthritis, after discharge.
The post-COVID wellness centre functions as a wing of the general medicine outpatient clinic at the old Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC) Block. Patients would undergo a series of tests, including pulmonary function test (PFT)/spirometry, and psychiatric counselling if required, at the centre. They would also be motivated for plasma donation, he said.  

“All the patients, infected and subsequently discharged from the GRH in the past 30 days, will be contacted over the phone for a follow-up on their health conditions, with the help of the Covid-19 control room established at the hospital and the corporation’s Telemedicine Centre. Besides, any recovered patient could approach the centre, which functions as an outpatient clinic,” he added.

So far, nearly 20 patients who recovered from Covid-19, including the hospital staff, have been screened at the centre, said hospital sources.