Divide work, re-formulate duty roasters: Docs
Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Mar 21: Grappling with the shortage of necessary gears, the doctors sensing the gravity of the situation, today said that the judicious and optimal use of resources including manpower is the key at this crucial juncture.
Several hospital administrations are or have started working on plans where the optimal and effective use of already less resources and the limited resources is made sure.
As the infection of Coronavirus spreads and its effects being felt in J&K, the doctors are of the opinion that the Administrators of the hospitals should devise a comprehensive policy to deal with the emerging crisis so as not to be caught off guard.
The doctors working on the frontlines in tackling the virus in Kashmir, said that there has to be a back-up plan to deal with the crisis as well as effective protection gears must be provided to them.
“We already have a dearth of manpower as well as the infrastructure here and what the key seems to be is that the work must be divided and different roosters should be formulated to deal with the emerging situation,” a doctor working at one of the GMC associated hospitals told Excelsior.
Pertinent to mention here is that the Resident Doctors’ Association of GMC, Srinagar yesterday had written a letter to the Principal GMC asking her to provide them the necessary gears.
Reacting to the grievance, Principal GMC, Dr Samia Rashid said that the GMC has got more than 13,000 N95 masks, 3300 PPE kits and 22,000 triple layers masks. Also, she said, SMHS has procured 10,000 additional triple layer masks.
Medical Superintendent, SKIMS Dr Farooq Jan told Excelsior that the administration has devised a policy where the people concerned have been told that they should optimize the use of their resources including manpower, which, he said, is being done.
They said that the administration cannot afford to exhaust all the manpower ahead of any major crisis. “We shouldn’t be caught unaware when something big hits us,” he said.
Another doctor from SKIMS told this reporter that the situation might seem good from the outside, but the things are quite scary inside.
“There is a constant touch of people with the doctors, and while the doctors stationed to deal with the emergencies are lacking the protective gears, they are being exposed to larger risks,” he said.
“Besides, we are providing the ‘Personal Protective Kits’ to people stationed at isolation ward, quarantine ward and microbiology laboratory; N95 masks and triple-layer masks are being provided at other places,” Dr Jan said.
SKIMS has also stopped the elective procedures at the hospital as a part of its optimization plan.
He also agreed to the fact that neither do they have to underuse the resources nor do they have to overuse them. He said that the hospital is not “putting anybody at risk.”
The doctors are suggesting that the hospitals should take due care of its staff which it might require when the things are to be tackled on the larger level in the coming days.
“We cannot afford a doctor getting infected with the virus. If that happens, it would create a chain, and a doctor on duty can infect scores of people in just one go. Apart from those who are in direct contact with the people who are infected, the hospital administration should also provide protection gears to those who are working at other fronts,” another doctor said.
The doctors also said that the fellow doctors who are suffering from any disease should be asked to stay home and not allowed to work.
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