THURSDAY, MAY 09, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Emphasising that there is ‘absolutely no problem of oxygen supply in Goa Medical College’ (GMC), Dean Dr Shivanand Bandekar and State Health Secretary Ravi Dhawan, expressed concern over, what they said is an incorrect image of the hospital being sent to the public.
Bandekar, Dhawan and the Health Services Director Dr Jose De Sa were addressing media persons on Monday.
Referring to media reports, the two officials said that a perception has been created that GMC is faulty, due to which, patients are not coming to the hospital early for treatment. They added that later on, they discover that patients come to the hospital at a much later stage, by which time the severity of the infection has increased.
“I want to tell the public that there is no scarcity of any supply at the hospital,” Bandekar said, while adding that patients will get the best treatment and that the entire medical staff has been working round-the-clock to help the COVID-19 patients.
When pointed out that the comments on oxygen supply were given by Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, Dhawan, speaking on behalf of Bandekar and De Sa, refused to be drawn into that debate and said they would talk about verifiable facts.
Bandekar said it is not fair to say deaths only occur at a certain hour as there is data to show that deaths have occurred throughout the day.
The officials added it is not that only at GMC there are deaths taking place at night and there are instances at hospitals in other parts of the country as well.
The State-appointed committee that had to do an audit of the oxygen requirements and supply has also completed their analysis and will soon be suggesting measures to augment the system.
Dhawan added that GMC is now dependent on the newly-installed Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) tank, which doesn’t get impacted if there is any power outage and that a new smaller sized 6,000 litre LMO tank will arrive in Goa from Gujarat by the end of this week. This will reduce the need for loose oxygen cylinders, he added.
Bandekar added that the government has also started additional treatment protocol with Baricitinib for Covid patients and that reports on its efficacy will be released in three-four days.
Responding to queries from media persons, the Health Secretary issued a clarification regarding the development of the government ‘taking over private hospitals’.
“Nodal officers have been appointed in private hospitals only to oversee the admission of the COVID-19 patients if a bed is available and that they are not charged any advance,” Dhawan said.
He added that this is applicable for DDSSY holders and it will be a cashless treatment as the government will reimburse the treatment amounts.
He also made it clear that decisions regarding medical treatment, which patient gets priority and other functioning of the hospitals, will be left with the administration and doctors of these 21 private hospitals.
Responding to another query, Dhawan made it clear that the State has sufficient stock of Covishield vaccines for the ongoing drives.
He also pointed out that 95,115 people in Goa have been fully vaccinated while 2,39,922 people have received the first dose, out of which 8,521 are from the 18-44 age group.
He confirmed that the government is in talks to purchase Covaxin but they are yet to receive confirmation regarding delivery and consignment size.
When asked if Goa has crossed the COVID peak of infections given the drop in cases, Dhawan said it is for the State epidemiologist to make such a determination. However, he said the government is waiting to assess the data of the next 3-4- days to see if there has been a sustained drop and felt that due to the cyclone on Sunday, there could have been fewer people going for testing on that day.
While Dhawan said incidents that occurred during the cyclone at government hospitals and health centres were minor, DHS Director De Sa said issues of power outages were resolved as they switched to back up power generators.
De Sa added that on Monday, the area-wise distribution of COVID cases as per their respective health centres were not updated as there was a temporary problem in internet connectivity.
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6 cases of black fungus detected in State
Doctors called on the media to send a message to the public regarding the emergence of cases of mucormycosis in six Covid-19 patients admitted at GMC, who were also highly diabetic.
Explaining that this was detected during their treatment at GMC and luckily at an early stage, GMC Dean Dr Shivanand Bandekar warned of the consequences of such a disease, commonly known as ‘black fungus’ which can cause problems to one’s eyesight.
He pleaded with people who have COVID symptoms to get tested early or visit the hospitals as the prevailing double-mutant strain causes severe damage at a quicker rate as compared to the first wave.
He also advised the public not to over-use steroids, especially during the first five days of the infection, and said steroids should be used only as per medical advice.
Pertaining to the black fungus cases reported at GMC, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said that a team of doctors headed by Bandekar are treating the patients with the best and appropriate treatment protocol.
“We are also in touch with various expert doctors in the country to see how best we can deal with this,” he said.
Rane added, “I have been chairing various meetings along with our doctors, experts and we are confident that we will succeed in dealing with the complications of COVID-19 and also bring down the mortalities in the State.”
