Morung Express News
Dimapur | April 15
Whereas the government has urged upon private health care centres not to close down but function as usual sans financial support, many of the private hospitals and clinics in Dimapur are struggling to function as the number of both in-patients and out-patients have drastically decreased owing to the current lockdown and yet salaries to the employees have to be paid.
Another problem which the health care centres face in common is the restrictions imposed by volunteers at various points disallowing health care workers to report to their work places. Owing to this, some health centres are facing shortage of even minimal staff. Some of the hospitals and clinics have also suspended treating out patients although emergency services remain functional.
The Morung Express on Tuesday visited several health centres in Dimapur town and interacted with the administration staff. A certain hospital informed that some of its staff were not allowed movement even to hospital by volunteers at certain locations. “If our medical staff are not allowed to come to the hospital then who will treat and look after the patients and cater to emergency services,” a doctor wondered. He said the hospital where he works is following all government protocols and directives and has also demarcated ‘flu corner’ where serious cases of patients relating to symptoms of Covid-19 are kept for stabilizing before the patient could be shifted to designated Covid-19 Hospital.
With the sealing of Zion Hospital & Research Centre, many of the patients who were being treated there have started visiting other hospitals especially those requiring dialysis. “Some of our staff are apprehensive of handling patients who had already visited the particular Hospital but we tell them there is nothing to panic as long as we take all precautionary measures and it does not mean that the patients might have come into primary or secondary contact with anyone having Covid-19 patients,” the doctor said.
Some of the health care centres also expressed concern over the sealing of Zion Hospital where a patient treated there was tested positive for Covid-19 in Assam. “If the authorities continue to seal all health centres in that manner then there would be no more hospitals and clinics to treat any kind of patients,” one doctor added.
Another doctor at a certain health care centre said, “We are adhering to all government directives and we the doctors are waiting for any call of duty by the government,” he said. He said since many of the employees are facing problem in reaching the health centre owing to restrictions imposed by volunteers in some locations, the health centre administration is contemplating to house all staff in the Centre itself so that there is no shortage of employees to handle patients in the days to come. Many of the doctors in various health centres also pointed to ill-preparedness of the government to handle the pandemic since necessary medical equipments especially PPE are not available easily and in adequate quantity.
