New Delhi: With the Delhi government preparing for a possible third wave of Covid-19 hitting the Capital, the multiple training programmes for preparing a pool of healthcare workers if needed, are moving briskly, with several officials saying that in addition to the 5,000 health assistants being trained, nearly 900 doctors, nurses and paramedic staff are being readied.
Currently, the training of a total of 56 doctors has been conducted successfully by the Delhi government's Department of Health and Family Welfare in two successive batches, Dr Namrata Makkar, the deputy medical superintendent of the training programme told Millennium Post.
The Delhi government has set a target of training over 5,000 workers, including the health assistants by August 21.
The training programmes have been conducted first through online classes and then through working at actual hospitals for hands-on experience in patient care.
The four online training programmes included medical management of Covid-19 and its various aspects including paediatric Covid management — with doctors, nurses and paramedics from all state government hospitals participating in each.
Significantly, given that the training programmes are being held across hospitals and facilities by a set of different experts, the Delhi government had also prepared detailed training guidelines for specialists and medical trainers at its hospitals so that the training they provide across facilities is standardised. This will ultimately create a common pool of health care workers wherein the staff can be posted as and when required, officials said.
The training programmes for now have been divided into four levels — for doctors, for nurses, for paramedics, and for health assistants. Health assistants are largely Class 12 graduates who are being trained in ancillary hospital work and basic life-saving interventions such as CPR along with assisting nurses and doctors.
Dr Namrata said that the online training led to doctors and nurses feeling the need for hands-on experience, for which they were attached to satellite facilities, which were under the aegis of six major government hospitals — RGUHS, LNJP and MAMC, GTB and University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS), Baba Saheb Ambedkar Medical college and hospital, Deen Dayal hospital, and Bara Hindu Rao and NDMC medical college.
Officials said the online sessions saw around 500-900 participants from across the Capital and the special class on paediatric training saw 500-600 participate.
In the physical training, a special focus was on oxygen therapy and how to operate oxygen-related equipment under pressure as in the last wave paramedics had faced a shortage of experienced and learned hands in such critical conditions, he said. The major hospitals were asked to babysit the satellite hospitals for physical training.
The doctors in the physical training were further divided into general medicine experts, pulmonary specialists and anaesthesiologists who already had an upper hand in treating COVID patients. ENT specialists, Gynaecologists and doctors from other backgrounds formed 70 per cent of the total doctors who had enrolled for the training.
"Hopefully a third wave will be averted but if needed the trained staff will be ready. They have been provided with reading material videos of all sessions in case a revision of the sessions is required. The satellite hospitals have also been provided with the content and videos for their revision as well," Dr Namrata said.