COVID wanes but speciality blocks stay closed

While Health Department officials maintain that government and private hospitals have been allowed to resume all non-surgical services, hospital authorities say the blocks are being reopened as per patient count.

When he was rushed to a government hospital in an unconscious state after an episode of seizure, 52-year-old Murali was admitted to the general trauma ward. Though he has a history of neurological issues, Murali was kept in the general intermediate ward for more than a week, as the neurology block in the new building was locked after pandemic cases at the hospital surged and the authorities had to focus on them.

While city hospitals have started attending to non-COVID cases and elective surgeries, the infrastructure for providing these services are not in place as earlier in the case of various specialities.

“There are adequate number of doctors on duty in a single ward, but chief doctors, department heads, other specialists visit the general ward in case of emergency or if their opinion is required. However, patients from neurology, cardiology, trauma, nephrology and others are in kept the emergency for many days and are only admitted to the intermediate wards, as the speciality blocks are locked. This confuses the specialists who come here and even medicos on duty. We have informed the seniors but they are yet to get a decision,” said a junior doctor posted at the general trauma ward of Government Stanley Medical College Hospital.

The hospital administrations said though the non-COVID services have resumed a while ago, the patients count has been very low in the case of certain specialities, and thus the workforce has to be divided accordingly.

“We have opened all non-COVID services and patients are significantly higher in the trauma ward. They are divided into respective wards based on their condition and medical history; we have to keep them under observation before shifting to respective speciality block,” said Dr P Balaji, Dean, Stanley Hospital.

Another problem that patients at Stanley Hospital and Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital face is the unavailability of pay wards for non-COVID cases, as they are yet to be brought to use. While Nephrology and Rheumatology departments are getting more patients, the new blocks for them have been lying idle for more than a year.

Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project (TNSP) Director Dr S Uma said all government hospitals were allowed to open infrastructure, workforce and services for all kinds of non-COVID cases and elective surgeries, and added that any specific complaint could be addressed by the Dean of the respective medical college hospital.