Health dept sets up 30-member 'Covid care network' to tackle admission of infected patients

Kolkata: In a significant move, the state Health department has set up a new cell, 'Covid care network' at Swasthya Bhavan with 30 dedicated members along with some senior doctors at the top to secure the admision of COVID-19 patients in various hospitals.

The development came a couple of days after some incidents surfaced where both government-owned and private hospitals were accused of refusing Covid suspects. The newly constituted cell will monitor every development from Swasthya Bhavan, track the progress of patients, talk to hospital authorities and ensure that the infected patients and the suspected ones get beds. The members of the 'Covid care network' cell will utilise the data available with the Health department related to the patients who have tested positive for the virus.

All the government-owned and private laboratories across the state that are conducting Covid tests submit the data of positive patients to the Health department. Based on the centralised data collected from various labs, the cell members would contact the affected patients or their family members to ensure that they do not face any difficulties. The cell will also coordinate between the patient party and the hospital authorities.

The 30-member cell will also monitor the health condition of patients who have been home quarantined. It will take care of the home-quarantined patients if their condition deteriorates. The senior doctors of the cell will provide consultation to patients who are in home isolation as well. The members of the cell will perform their duties round-the-clock in shifts.

According to sources in the Health department, many of the members of the contract tracing cell that was formed much earlier at Swasthya Bhavan had been infected with COVID-19 and as a result of this, the co-ordination between the patients and the hospitals had received a jolt. The contract tracing cell was assigned to conduct the mechanism to smoothly run the admission processes. As the members were infected, the whole system was hampered to some extent.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced that another 4,000 Covid beds would be added to the existing health infrastructure to tackle the current spurt in cases. The state has presently around 11,000 Covid beds and the proposed beds would be extremely handy for the Health department.

"The health infrastructure is being developed constantly in the state to cope with the situation. Beds will be increased in various Covid hospitals," a senior health official said.