Infectious Diseases & Beleghata General Hospital with capacity of 200 beds for Covid-19 patients, is running out of adequate doctors and nurses at a time when there has been a huge rush of critically-ill novel coronavirus cases to the hospital since last week.
Around 40 serious COVID positive patients are undergoing treatment in the 68-bed critical care unit (CCU) in the state-run ID Hospital.
Today, hospital super Dr Ashish Manna met director of medical education (DME) Dr Debasish Bhattacharya at Swasthya Bhawan and submitted a list of additional human resources, mainly doctors and nurses required for the COVID unit at the hospital.
“I have requested the DME today to depute at least 11 doctors and 20 nurses immediately considering the regular rush of serious COVID patients to our hospital. It will be difficult to cater services to all categories of patients particularly COVID cases if some of our existing doctors or nurses get infected with the viral disease,” Dr Manna said.
“DME sir has assured us to provide the pool of medical staff as soon as possible. Most of the cases admitted to the CCU are critical with two to three deaths on an average daily,” a doctor treating COVID patients said.
He said that there is no indication of COVID infections declining in Bengal. The number of positive cases has crossed 3,000 as per the health bulletin released by the government on Thursday.
The trend shows an alarming surge in the number of COVID positive cases and it’s because of a large number of people reluctant to follow COVID appropriate behaviour like using masks and hand sanitizers, said the doctor.
A senior public health specialist associated with the government healthcare facilities urged the government to take strict measures forcing people to follow COVID protocols otherwise the situation would go beyond control.