The decision was taken in accordance with current ICMR national guidelines The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Wednesday discontinued routine testing of patients for Covid-19 before hospitalisation and surgeries. “In accordance with current ICMR national guidelines, it has been decided to discontinue with the routine Covid-19 testing prior to inpatient hospitalisation (regular as well as day care) and also prior to any minor or major surgical, interventional, and non-interventional procedures and imagings in clinically asymptomatic people,” read the communication from the medical superintendent of the hospital Dr D K Sharma.
The new guidelines were released by the Indian Council of Medical Research one month ago and did away with testing of asymptomatic patients in need of other surgeries and procedures. It also did away with testing on demand for asymptomatic persons, leading to a drop in the number of tests in the capital.
At the time, when the omicron variant driven Covid surge was at its peak, AIIMS along with several other city hospitals continued to test patients before admitting them to the hospital, performing surgeries and procedures, or moving them from one ward to the other. Only cases where emergency interventions were needed were exempt.
“Now, there are fewer cases of the infection being reported, so the hospital can do away with testing everyone. The patients can still be tested if they are symptomatic. Most doctors and other healthcare workers have also had the infection and recovered without hospitalisations and severe disease. Hence, the decision was taken,” said a doctor from the hospital.
Another fear that the doctors had was that the outcomes of surgeries in Covid-19 patients were not good. However, a study from AIIMS itself, shared by the Union health ministry, showed that there weren’t any complications or adverse impact on patients who had to undergo surgery when they were Covid-19 positive during the omicron wave.
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