1K health assistants trained, 4K more to be ready by Nov
New Delhi: He had just seen an accident on the infamous Yamuna Expressway. For 20-year-old Ankit Singh, who had passed his Class 12 exams last year, his instinct and training kicked in.
In the crashed car, he spotted a baby on the front seat - not breathing. "I saw the baby wasn't breathing. I gave him compression and revived him and then called an ambulance," he said, adding that the child's life had been saved due to the intervention.
Singh is among the 1,000 health assistants already trained by the Delhi government in anticipation of a possible third wave of the pandemic Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had months ago announced the ambitious plan to train Class 12 graduates in basic medical care and assisting work.
4,000 more are expected to be ready for deployment by November, officials have said.
Over 1 lakh people who had signed up for the training like Ankit hoped to make a difference if a third wave strikes and also thought this would get them jobs.
The certificate course of the training programme at the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University has readied two batches (500 each) of health assistants for deployment.
With a total of 10 such batches, in the next 3-4 months, 5,000 will be ready, said programme coordinator Dr Madhu Gupta told Millennium Post. In one month, two batches of 500 each are ready to be put on the
field.
"The target is to train 5,000 health assistants who will be spread across the Capital," Dr Madhu said. It is a two-week programme with one week in the classroom and next week in physical training. The entire course requires physical presence and no digital classes have taken place.
The selection process depends on the student's preference of centre. "For example, if a student prefers Safdarjung we send them there if there is enough availability of seats, else to the nearest centre," Dr Gupta explained. Since Safdarjung is a big complex it has capacity for 100 aspirants, while other centres have 50 each, she
added.
The programme is designed to train them to assist doctors and nurses and provide better patient care. "Usually a course like this is designed to provide first aid and assist in medical emergencies but due to COVID, the course also lays emphasis on COVID protocol to be followed on how to use oximeters," a senior official from the Delhi government said.
"First a basic learning is provided which includes details about the respiratory system, digestive system, first aid, if hospitalisation is required, Pulse reading and more," the senior official said. However, due to current times, checking oxygen pressure along with how to set up the cylinder , how to wear PPE kits and disposal of it has also been included.
The employment is not under the University, candidates can either approach hospitals directly or through the agency or even get hired through the government. The minimum qualification for the application is class XII graduation.
And with the home isolation model in Delhi, these health assistants have also been trained in home care.
The pool of data on health assistants with their contact details are sent to the Deputy CM's office from where to is categorised and organised and then sent to the respective DM offices to keep the data ready in case there is a sudden need for them.
