Kashmir hospitals directed to be ready for COVID Third Wave

Srinagar, Jan 14: All Kashmir hospitals that were designated as COVID19 hospitals in the Second Wave will again be reserved for COVID19 while OPDs and elective surgeries in all tertiary care hospitals would also be stalled. These are some of the fresh COVID19 Third Wave mitigation measures ordered by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir PK Pole.

As per the Minutes of Meeting chaired by the Divisional Commissioner, dated January 12, all hospitals, including the tertiary care, have been directed to put on hold all elective surgeries and OPDs, to prevent

overwhelming of health care facilities due to upsurge in COVID19 cases. The order has been issued to Director SKIMS Soura and Principals of GMCs Srinagar, Ananatnag, Baramulla, SKIMS Medical College Hospital and Director Health Services Kashmir and Chief Medical Officers. In addition, the hospitals that had been designated for COVID19 in April 2020 for the purpose of the second wave, would be re-designated for this current wave.

The order has also directed reserving beds for pregnant women who test positive for COVID19. In order to meet the challenge posed by the growing number of cases, the Divisional Commissioner has ordered for roping in manpower from other departments. “The Health Teams constituted for monitoring of home isolation cases be also supplemented with additional manpower roped in from other departments, the chair stressed.”

The order has directed Director SKIMS, Principal GMC Srinagar and Principal MCH- Bemina Srinagar to depute “final year MBBS students and final year Nursing/Paramedic students to Deputy Commissioner Srinagar for further deployment as per requirement”.

In order to create COVID19 management mechanisms in peripheries, it has been ordered that all positive cases in every district shall attend the Triage Centre on getting a positive COVID- 19 test report and their further destination shall be decided by the Medical Team at the Triage Centre.

The triage centres will be created one at the district Hospital and other at Sub-District Hospital. “All the necessary staff/logistics shall be put in place by the concerned CMOs. In addition, the treatment facility has also been ordered to be created at primary health centres including Panchayat Covid Care Centres. Div Com has ordered the strengthening of manpower and infrastructure in these centres.”

The order has also called for testing of all Influenza-Like Illness cases for COVID19. In addition, death analysis of COVID19 on a monthly basis and 100 per cent coverage of the 15-18 year age group has also been called for. Pole has also directed for roping in of opinion leaders for enhancing IEC related to COVID19 appropriate behaviour.