Donning, doffing rooms not as per protocol
Irfan Tramboo
SRINAGAR, Apr 15: As the SKIMS Medical College and Hospital (MC&H), Bemina is taking care of COVID19 positive cases, at the same time, less is being done for the protection of doctors who are working on the frontlines round the clock.
As per doctors who wished not to be named-in order to avoid the backlash of the administration-told Excelsior that the hospital administration is putting their lives at risk by not adhering to the protocols at several instances and by being callous with regard to their safety.
They said that donning and doffing-where the doctors put on and take off their PPEs-area outside the ward No.1 of the hospital is not as per the protocol as both the rooms have got their entry facing each other and also share a common space.
“Ideally, there should be no connection between both the areas and should be distant from each other, but here, it is totally different, the entry of both the areas faces each other-increasing the chances of contamination,” the doctors said.
They said after putting on the PEE, the doctor using the hallway enters into the ward number 1 where the positive patients are admitted, then when the doctors come out of the ward-with contaminated gear-they, using the same hallway to enter the area, where they take the PPE off. “This increases the chances of contamination, as both the areas should have been distant and should have got no link,” the doctors said.
The Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, Dr Shafa A. Deva, however, had something else to say. She said that the hospital will put up things in accordance with the availability of the infrastructure and both the areas-donning and doffing have “got separate entry and exit”. “The arrangement made is what has to be there, it is almost what should be there in ideal conditions,” she said.
She, however, did not mention anything about the common space that the doctors share when they enter or exit from the ward housing positive cases.
The doctors further said that the positive patients roam around freely during the night and might have even used the washrooms in the donning and doffing section of the hospital-thus contaminating the area.
“There is no security whatsoever during the night and there have been reports of patients roaming around and even using the washrooms in the areas where the doctors put on or wear off the PEEs-there are every are all the chances that the areas have been contaminated and preventions have been compromised,” the doctors said.
Dr Deva, however, said that the entire hospital is the COVID hospital and that it is normal if the patients use the washrooms. “We have patients up and down in the entire hospital. We take due care of that, we are committed for the safety of our doctors,” she said.
Doctors are also alleging that after the uproar about the sub-standard PEEs given to them, the hospital administration provided them kits up to the marks for two weeks and that for last 3 days, they are again getting the same sub-standard PPE kits.
“There are several front on which our safety is compromised; we don’t know who catches the infection when,” the doctor said.
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