29 Doctors Infected due to patients kin not following COVID protocol, says Tanda Medical College

Dharamsala: Doctors at a state-run hospital in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh rue that attendants of patients fail to follow COVID-19 safety precautions and in turn infect the hospital staff.

The Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMC) authorities said 29 doctors out of its more than 350 doctors have been infected by the highly contagious disease.

RPGMC principal Bhanu Awasthi said the infection is spreading due to negligence of the attendants of patients who do not follow government guidelines on coronavirus.

He said the situation is getting worse as such people do not even wear masks and follow social distancing, adding that four to five COVID-19 cases are reported from the hospital's main wards daily.

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"I salute my doctors and other staff who are working tirelessly under these conditions. We are screening everyone (for COVID-19) and now started rapid antigen testing," Awasthi said.

According to official data, there are 1,195 COVID-19 cases in Kangra district, while 761 people have recovered. A total of 424 active cases are present in the district and 11 people have died of the disease.

A total of 134 patients are in home isolation, it said.

Another senior doctor of the hospital emphasized on the importance of following COVID appropriate behavior to prevent the infection spread to more people.

"Healthcare personnel are getting infected due to a surge in COVID-19 cases. The situation will get worse in the coming days. The only remedy is to follow good practices by people around," he said.

Meanwhile, administrative officers of the medical institute alleged that other hospitals were flooding the RPGMC with referral cases, most of which could be treated in primary hospitals.

These cases, if avoided, could give much space to specialist doctors to treat critical patients with more ease. This could also lessen the infection rate of the doctors and staff of RPGMC, they said.

"Every health facility should be able to test and treat (if not seriously ill but others) and follow the fundamental principle of referral. Decentralize testing, empower healthcare facilities, treat as per requirement, refer as per need, and create awareness at grassroots level," a doctor added.

Awasthi said out of the 29 infected doctors, nine have now tested negative for COVID-19, but they would have to wait for more days to resume work as per the central government instructions.

There are three COVID care centers in Kangra at Baijnath, Dadh and Fatehpur, and one COVID health centre at Dharamsala, officials said.

Few COVID-19 patients are also admitted at Tanda Medical College and military hospitals in Kangra, they said.

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