Goa: Panchayats, NGOs help home-isolated, but crumbling health system poses challenges

MARGAO: While the state disaster management authority has sought the assistance of panchayats and urban local bodies in monitoring the status of home isolation Covid patients, several of these elected bodies as well as voluntary organisations have been rendering this service ever since the first wave of the pandemic broke out in the state last year.
However, with the state’s health infrastructure crumbling this time, the efforts of these groups haven’t been supplemented by institutional support mechanism, thus rendering their efforts that much inadequate in saving more lives, sources actively associated with such voluntary groups told TOI.
Former sarpanch of Aquem-Baixo, Siddesh Bhagat said that the panchayat, in association with young volunteers from the village, began the task of providing assistance to home isolated patients since April 2020.
“Now during the second wave, we have been advising people to go in for home isolation immediately upon the onset of symptoms, and not to wait for their test results. We make arrangements to collect their test reports and home isolation kits from primary health centers and deliver them to their homes,” Bhagat said.
While the state disaster management authority has also asked local bodies to help to provide these patients with ambulance support in case of the need for their hospitalisation arises, voluntary organisations are facing huge problems in making an ambulance available, as also a bed in a hospital. Shortage of oxygen and oxygen regulators in hospitals has exacerbated the problem.
“How many patients are you going to put in home isolation when their oxygen levels are dropping and you have neither beds nor oxygen in hospitals,” national member of Red Cross, Dr Jorson Fernandes said. He gave instances of two of his patients in home isolation needing hospitalisation, who got beds only after waiting endlessly outside the hospitals.
Ambulances, too, are not readily available at primary health centres to take patients to the hospital. “In one case, I tried to get an ambulance from several health centres, but none was available as all had patients inside on oxygen support,” Bhagat said.
Fernandes has helped organise training sessions for youth volunteers for home management of Covid patients. The volunteers are trained in managing patients, even those having comorbid conditions like hypertension, diabetes, etc. He, however, suggested that the government rope in medical students to tide over the crisis of shortage of trained medical and para-medical manpower.
“The government could very well use its fleet of over 1,500 medical students to monitor patients in home isolation. The students will also be benefitted and will be more than willing to render their services during this pandemic. During the pandemic you have to take everybody onboard,” Fernandes said.
Monitoring the health of elderly patients staying alone is another challenge for voluntary organisations. Bhagat said they have been able to overcome the problem by use of video calling to get their oximeter and pulse readings recorded.
Bhagat, who is also coordinating with two other neighbouring panchayats, spoke about his plans of setting up a helpline for those in need of assistance.