Covid hospitals in Odisha directed to set up helpdesk at the earliest

Bhubaneswar: During a district-wise virtual review meeting chaired by Odisha Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra it is known the districts are all set to combat the Omicron situation and provide proper treatment to the infected people. All the District Collectors appraised their ground level preparedness for the third wave of Covid-19.

Taking a detail review from Lokseba Bhawan conference hall, Mahapatra directed to insulate Doctors, Nurses and Health Workers engaged for Covid duty with booster dose on priority. He also directed that Covid hospitals and Covid Care Centers should put in place helpdesk system for communication with family members and relatives of the patients. Emphasizing upon empathetic treatment to patients, the Chief Secretary directed that no patient should feel neglected in hospitals. The family members also should be communicated about condition of the patients regularly.

Additional Chief Secretary Health and family welfare Raj Kumar Sharma said all kind of facilities and provisions put in place for combating the second wave should be reactivated with full force. He also asked the Collectors to recruit the retired Doctors and Nurses locally as per the requirement. The CDMOs and Public Health officers were asked to go ahead with booster dose vaccination with the already available vaccines in all districts.

Development Commissioner Paradeep Jena assured of all sorts of cooperation among the State and Central PSUs and Covid hospitals. The Collectors were asked to go ahead with tripartite agreements like first and second wave.

The Chief Secretary asked the Collectors about any additional requirement; and, directed Health and Family Welfare Department to provide those on priority basis. Mahapatra also directed the Collectors to visit all Covid hospitals personally and look into the arrangements such as availability of medicine, man power, instruments, pathological test facilities, oxygen, seamless admission of the patients, proper treatment, trained Doctors, Nurse and Health workers etc.

A total number of 7,181 oxygen-supported beds, around 1,000 pediatric beds, 2,024 ICUs and HDUs, and 874 ventilators have already been made available in the districts. As of now, 16,117 active cases are there out of whom 15,640 patients are being treated in home isolation. They are being managed by rapid response team members. They have not needed hospitalization. The present trend shows around 97% of the patients can be managed without actual hospitalization. Only around 3% of the available beds, 11% of the ICUs and 3% of the ventilators are being used.

Director National Health Mission Shalini Pandit, Director Public Health Dr Niranjan Mishra, Additional Director Dr Umakanta Satpathy along with senior officers of the concerned departments participated in the discussion.