Hosps brace for shortages, docs for longer hours
New Delhi: On the precipice of a third wave of Covid infections, a large number of doctors and paramedics in Delhi are turning out to be Covid positive which might put the city's health infrastructure under severe strain, experts said on Tuesday.
At least 50 doctors have tested Covid positive at AIIMS in Delhi while 26 have been diagnosed with the disease at the Safdarjung Hospital, officials said. Forty-five healthcare workers, including 38 doctors, have contracted Covid at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in the last few days, according to an official.
At the North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run Hindu Rao Hospital at least 30 doctors have contracted Covid while at the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Hospital it is seven, sources said.
Experts said that since the highly transmissible Omicron variant is going to infect people in a never-seen-before number, those requiring medical care in hospitals will also be proportionate and even if the hospitalisation rates are low compared to the Delta wave, the absolute numbers might very well overwhelm the city's healthcare infrastructure.
In view of the alarming spike in cases, the AIIMS administration has now cancelled the winter vacation of its faculty members asked them all to join back with immediate effect, according to an office memorandum.
Officials at the Safdarjung Hospital said doctors from gynaecology, medicine and microbiology departments
had been infected and their contacts are being traced.
LNJP Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Ritu Saxena said that three of the seven positive doctors are being treated at a special ward.
Dr B L Sherwal, the medical director of the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, said a few doctors are testing Covid positive every day and the number is likely to rise in the coming days.
"The number of hospitalisations has so far remained low, but it is going to increase and put the healthcare staff under strain. Doctors, nursing staff, laboratory technicians, paramedical staff form one of the most vulnerable groups. A large number of healthcare staff are getting infected will compound the situation," he said, adding they will use the 5,000 youths trained as medical assistants by the Delhi government if the need arises.
The city government had last month ordered medical superintendents and directors of all state-run hospitals to hire manpower in anticipation of a surge in infections.
Dr Madhu Handa, the Medical Director of Moolchand Hospital, said four resident doctors and at least five nurses have tested Covid positive in a week. "The other doctors have to manage somehow, do double shifts. Sometimes, we hire more doctors. As for nurses, we have to manage or nursing third-year students are pulled into duty," he said.
Dr Manish Jangra, President of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association, said they had warned the government of such a healthcare crisis and had requested it to expedite the NEET-PG 2021 counselling to avoid precisely such a scenario.
