By Dr Sudarshan Ballal,
2020 has been a devastating year for all of us in the healthcare sector and the society in common. The healthcare sector possibly took the brunt of the Covid 19 pandemic in lots of approaches. The sheer volume of patients coming with Covid all in a quick period of time overwhelmed most of the healthcare sectors in the planet Fortunately, our nation fared a lot greater than the rest of the planet and managed the Covid pandemic nicely.
In the initial phase of the pandemic in addition to taking care of the Covid patients we had a substantial challenge of taking care of the non-Covid patients in view of the lockdown, isolation procedures, worry of the illness and stigma attached to patients with Covid and hospitals treating Covid patients. Since it was a new illness we also had an unprecedented challenge of a significant quantity of healthcare workers receiving infected with the illness and regrettably some of them succumbing to the illness.
In the early phases of the illness there was just about an 70 to 80% drop in footfalls and revenues in most hospitals but we met the challenge effectively and had been in a position to overcome and mitigate the impact of Covid in the subsequent months by getting more effective, greater isolation and segregation of Covid non-Covid patients, instilling self-confidence in the population of the extraordinary precautions we have taken to make them protected in the hospital atmosphere
During the peak Covid occasions we ensured that critically ill patients and patients with severe illnesses who could not afford to delay their therapy had been specially taken care of with sufficient security precautions and transportation facilities for a smooth continuity of care. A unique instance was the dialysis patients in whom missing dialysis could be fatal, had been supplied with ambulances and also the police on our request supplied them transportation services so that they did not miss the dialysis.
One of the greatest positive aspects of Covid was that it gave a fantastic impetus to Digital wellness and we utilised it really extensively for patient consultations along with boosting the use of household care for routine purposes, testing for Covid and monitoring of asymptomatic and mild instances at household and Covid care facilities.
Also more than a period of time greater awareness of the illness, protocolised therapy and lower in the mortality helped make up self-confidence in the public and get rid of the stigma attached to the illness.
The availability of vaccines from January of this year was a different increase to the self-confidence of each patients and wellness care workers
However foreign travel restrictions and travel inside the nation was nonetheless an challenge and patients from far off areas and outdoors the nation nonetheless could not come in in sufficient numbers for the care but there was greater penetration of the regional market place so that the hospital numbers began coming back to just about pre-Covid levels by finish of the 3 rd quarter of final year.
In truth when the Covid numbers dropped drastically among November 2020 to to February 2021 a substantial quantity of patients who had delayed their coming to the hospital began coming in and the hospitals had been operating complete in January February till the second wave struck in March of this year.
There are lots of lessons we have learnt for the duration of the Covid occasions and these had been
1) Lockdown was necessary but painful for the duration of the initial round of Covid but we must now push difficult and implement Covid suitable behaviour amongst the common public specially masking ,distancing ,avoiding crowds and hand washing to make confident that we do not have to go for a second lock down.
2) We require to push for mass aggressive vaccination as quickly as feasible so that we minimize the burden of illness and transmissibility of the illness but DO NOT LET OUR GUARD DOWN just mainly because the vaccine is right here
3) Future healthcare at hospitals must have facilities exactly where each pandemic connected illnesses like Covid and non-Covid care specially of NCD is feasible.
4) One of the most essential lessons of Covid was the working collectively of the government and private wellness care as a PPP model and surely with a proactive government Karnataka was a function model in this field.
Manipal Hospital is performing every little thing feasible to mitigate the effects of the second wave of Covid by Huge efforts to make awareness of Covid suitable behaviour. We have also encouraged as far as feasible Covid care at household, Covid care centres, outpatient and daycare and use hospital beds only when completely required generating confident that the hospital remains protected for non-Covid care in addition to catering to the desires of Covid patients. We have also actively participated in the government‘s Covid vaccination drive each for healthcare workers and as per government guidelines all about the age of 45.
All in all Manipal hospitals have been in the forefront of tackling the Covid pandemic with the least disturbance for non-Covid care but eventually the manage of Covid is a public wellness measure and is really dependent on the participation of the citizens
(The author is Chairman, Manipal Hospitals. Views expressed are individual and do not reflect the official position or policy of the TheSpuzz Online.)
1 Comment
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