Ranchi: Struggling to cope with the number of Covid patients seeking treatment, hospitals in Jharkhand on Thursday asked the state to ensure unhindered supply of oxygen, Remdesivir and human resources. Doctors put forth their suggestions at a hastily summoned virtual meeting with chief minister Hemant Soren and senior bureaucrats involved in managing the pandemic. The meeting was held a day after the number of active cases in the state crossed 35,000-mark for the first time.
Doctors from leading Covid hospitals in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad urged the harkhand government to set up isolation facilities for patients with mild or no symptom to rein in the rate of infectivition and reduce the burden on hospitals. They also suggested that nursing homes and smaller hospitals be converted to Covid hospitals and equipped with oxygen support and other paraphernalia to reduce the inflow at higher centres.
“The new strain of the virus is highly infectious. Since mildly symptomatic and asymptomatic patients are in home isolation, other members of the family are getting infected as well. There is a need to increase the number of isolation centres. Smaller medical facilities should be equipped to treat patients to reduce the load at bigger hospitals,” Dr Vijay Mishra of Ranchi Medica Hospital said.
Doctors from Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur and Dhanbad Medical College and Hospital expressed concerns over poor Remdesivir supply. “The availability of Remdisivir is a problem. We do not even have enough stock for a day,” Dr Rajan Choudhary, medical advisor at TMH, said. Several hospitals sought high flow nasal oxygen machines and ventilators from the government.
The hospitals also flagged shortage of skilled manpower as a major concern. TMH, which has 530 Covid beds, said its doctors, nurses and paramedical staff are overworked and 180 of them have been infected. “Our hospital is fighting an acute manpower crunch, especially nurses, as they are joining government hospitals. I urge the government to halt their recruitment for now,” Dr S Mukhtar of Ranchi’s Medanta Hospital said.
Soren directed Jitendra Kumar Singh, the head of the state oxygen task force, to create a reserve of 1,000 tonnes of oxygen at all the five oxygen manufacturing units in Jharkhand. “The companies must be told that they can supply to other states only after provisioning for Jharkhand’s requirement,” Soren said. He also directed officials to purchase 2,000 oxygen cylinders.
Meanwhile, the government has also arranged for 1824 additional beds with oxygen support for treatment of Covid patients in districts other than Ranchi, a statement issued by the Information and Public Relation Department said on Wednesday.