How Are You Doing? Himachal CMO Dials 1,000 Covid Patients In 72 Hours

Mobile phones of Covid patients, both in the government hospitals and those undergoing treatment at home, have started ringing almost daily to get regular feedback on their health, doctors’ visits and line of treatment.

And, the callers are not only the health officials but Chief Minister’s Office trying to fix the gaps between the system and compliance of the decisions taken by the government to upgrade patient care, including regular visits of senior doctors, para-medical staff and meeting shortage of the oxygen for indoor Covid patients.

In the past 72 hours, around 1,000 calls have been made to the Covid -19 patients from the Chief Minister’s Office (helpline no 1100). All calls were recorded to prepare a data base for further course of action. The patients or their attendants can also call back for any urgent medical or administration interventions needed at any stage.

“There is a set of standard 10 queries being posed to the patients. These include asking about his /her health profile, line of treatment, facilities at the hospital, medicines, diet and provision of hot water in the wards apart from his/her rating about the medical care. One question also relates to possible contact where he/she got infected,” said the chief minister’s advisor, R.N. Batta, who is monitoring these calls on real-time basis.

The calls, said Batta, is also aimed at boosting their morale to fight this virus and save lives of those with co-morbidity. “Any loophole detected at this stage can also be plugged easily for better medical care,” he said.

“The state government will not hesitate in taking stern action against the officials showing laxity in this regard in enforcing the SoPs, guidelines and general instructions issued to all heads of hospitals, medical superintendents and other senior officials relating to Covid-19 management,” Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Monday.

At a meeting of the deputy commissioners/ SPs and senior officials, the chief minister asked for evolving an effective mechanism to ensure at least one telephone call by a doctor to patients under treatment at home.

The high court last week had also passed the order directing that senior doctors must visit the Covid wards since there have been largescale complaints about the complete apathy of the doctors, non-availability of beds, oxygen and poor facilities.

The chief minister directed the authorities to ensure that the doctors and paramedical staff must record daily health status and parameter of the patients, even those under home isolation. Regular and daily monitoring of such patients would not only help get effective information but also boost the morale of the patients.

The government has decided to ensure that no patient suffers for want of proper ambulance and transportation facilities. There will be dedicated vehicles for patients if they are required to be shifted to hospital from home.

“Additional vehicles will be deployed to facilitate the patients in particularly in rural areas,” he assured.

The chief minister was told by the deputy commissioners that the number of fresh cases has come down in certain hotspot areas after imposition of strict curbs on social gatherings. There are chances that the cases might drop further if the curbs implemented strictly, Thakur was informed.

At this Thakur asked all the district officers to make sure that only 50 people were invited to social gatherings such as weddings.

“A sharp spike in the number of Covid-19 patients last month and also the first week of December can be clearly attributed to the large number of gatherings in social functions such as marriages, religious functions etc,” he said, directing the field officers to ensure that stern action was taken against the violators.

The deputy commissioners will take daily report from their respective field officers regarding such celebrations. The officers have been told to counsel the families and motivate them to ensure that not more than 50 people were invited.

The police have already started raiding marriage parties and other social gatherings to impose penalties for violations. Some arrests were also made last week in Kullu district.