Railway Hospital scales up care to meet COVID needs

Chennai

“We decided to go ahead and address their COVID symptoms along with treatment for their ailments. We had to quickly scale up our resources and begin treating our patients for COVID 19, too,” said Dr Nirmala Devi, medical director.

Dr Kalanidhi, the nodal physician, recalled the case of an 80-year-old diabetic patient who turned up with fever, breathlessness and cough. After finding her to be COVID positive, the doctors treated her with high flow nasal oxygen therapy along with other measures and cured her of both the ailments. “It felt like a personal achievement for every one of us,” he said.

“Whether we are from ENT or pathology, HOD or junior doctor, we all do night duties and ward duties,” added Dr Mussarrat Feshan from the ENT department.

To treat COVID patients, they had to deal with issues like additional manpower, equipment, maintaining cleanliness, and getting repairs done among others. Earlier, procurement used to take months, which was cut down to just days due to the gravity of the situation, said Dr Nirmala Devi.

A source from the hospital said the TB or chest treatment facility was quickly converted into an isolation ward. “Two new blocks were constructed for the hospital. An old outpatient block was shifted to one of the new buildings. After the State government asked the building for COVID treatment, we shifted OP back to the old block. As numbers increased in our facility, the TB block was converted into an isolation ward,” said the source.

Till last week, the hospital has treated 135 COVID patients and there are 55 active cases as of Tuesday, said chief PRO B Guganesan.