A comprehensive post-COVID care clinic has been set up at the Government Corona Hospital, Guindy.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin inaugurated the clinic on Thursday. The clinic will offer speciality services such as general medicine, cardiology, neurology, nephrology, gastroenterology, ENT, ophthalmology, diabetology, chest medicine and psychiatry. Yoga and naturopathy, and physiotherapy services are also available at the clinic.
Among the facilities available are digital X-ray, clinical laboratory services, electrocardiogram, lung function test, ultrasonogram, echocardiography, optometry, nasal endoscopy, six minute walk test, nutrition and dietetics and pharmacy.
K. Narayanasamy, director of Government Corona Hospital said the post-COVID care clinic functions at an annexe building and would be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on all days of the week. It would provide general check up, speciality and super-speciality consultations, diagnostic services and rehabilitative services.
“Any person who underwent treatment for COVID-19 in a government or private hospital can approach the post-COVID care clinic at the hospital. We have set up a ‘May I Help You’ desk where the person can provide their details. A 10-page booklet has been readied for the purpose. Following this, they will undergo a general check-up followed by a six-minute walk test to measure their oxygen level,” he said.
An ENT doctor would screen the patients for any symptoms/signs of mucormycosis, an invasive fungal disease occurring in the post-COVID period.
Noting that post-COVID care was crucial, he said, “The lungs take time to recover. The recovery phase is longer for those who were in the intensive care unit. It is important to keep monitoring one’s health during the recovery phase. We came across different clinical profiles in patients during the second phase. So, follow-up is vital.”
The clinic would also provide lung rehabilitative services. If any person who attends the clinic requires treatment, he/she would be admitted. Nearly 40 beds have been earmarked for such patients in the annexe building, he added.
So far, the Government Corona Hospital has treated nearly 21,000 patients with COVID-19, he said.
