New Delhi: The Directorate General of Health Service issued orders to Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) and its associated hospitals on Thursday to convert some parts of the premises into hostel rooms for resident doctors who test positive for COVID-19. Resident doctors working at Lady Hardinge Hospital, Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital, Sucheta Kriplani Hospital and other hospitals associated with LMHC will now be given single rooms on the second and third floors of the Oncology block to isolate due to a lack of space in the hostels.
In the April 15 order, Additional DGHS and Director N N Mathur wrote: "Single rooms in Oncology block on 2nd and 3rd floor will be used as hostel rooms for the resident doctors who have turned positive by RT-PCR for COVID-19 and are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic or for those who have got exposed with COVID-19 positive cases, till further orders".
The move was made necessary because the recent spike in COVID-19 cases has infected several residents at these hospitals and others across the city already and continues to do so. As such, hostel space is soon running out, leaving no space for those who have the disease to isolate.
However, the order specifically went on to say, "However, this facility will just function as a hostel and not as a Covid Care Centre."
The Resident Doctors' Association of LHMC said, "We are facing an acute shortage of rooms as more and more residents test positive in large numbers daily".
The RDA also said that hearing from residents who have tested positive for the virus recently was difficult since they were in complete isolation.
This comes as more and more healthcare workers start testing positive in the city as cases keep rising to new records almost every day.