Odisha: Interns playing crucial role in covid management

BHUBANESWAR: Suvam Kumar would never have done duty in an ICU as a medical intern during normal time. However, it has been a routine for him monitoring critical patients including those on ventilator and deciding on their treatments.
“We had an orientation of three days before I started working in the ICU,” said Suvam, straight out of classroom in VSS Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Sambalpur to a Covid hospital in Sundargarh.
After a review committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to deploy medical interns on Covid management duties in the country on May 3, the same day Odisha deployed around 500 of them in duties ranging from covid patient’s treatment to manning helpdesks and managing oxygen supply in hospitals. For past two weeks, they have been playing a crucial role in the pandemic management.
After completion of four and half months MBBS, the passing out students are posted as interns, also called house surgeons for six months in different clinical departments in rotation helping in patient care and learning from first-hand experience. This time, most of the interns have been shifted from medical colleges to different Covid hospitals.
“It is an opportunity for us. Not even many of our medical teachers have done duty in such a situation when resources are scarce and decisions have to be taken quickly in an emergency,” said Debakinandan Senapati, another intern from VIMSAR.
Eight hours duty for six days in a week is hectic, but learnings in the past two weeks is that of a lifetime. Initial some days were scary as one has to take a decision though of course seniors (PG students) are there to guide, he said.
Some of the interns feel the exposure will be lopsided as they are doing only Covid duty. “For some months it is fine but we should be allowed to do internship in our colleges across departments for wider experience,” said an intern from SCB Medical College who has been deployed on Covid duty in Balangir.
Government authorities said the extraordinary situation has given rise to arrangements that may look unusual. “However, availability of around 500 interns helped the state manage the situation amid rising cases of hospitalizations,” said Jayant Panda, government’s technical adviser on Covid-19. The government would also deploy final year MBBS and nursing students if needed, he said.
Odisha has been reporting more than 10,000 new positive cases for past eight days. Currently, around 14000 patients are hospitalised across Odisha including around 2450 in the ICU. More than 600 patients are on ventilator.