Shortage of anti-viral drugs
Many hospitals in districts also not allowed to conduct Covid tests
Anti-viral drugs are not available Khammam, Warangal and Mahbubnagar districts as there are limited number of specialist doctors, few ventilators and authorisation to conduct Covid-19 tests has been given to only a few private hospitals.
With positive cases increasing in districts, these gaps are causing problems in containing the spread of disease and the existing healthcare resources are overburdened. In Warangal, the government hospital is overloaded with serious cases. Only one private hospital has been given permission, and beds are fully occupied.
The Telangana Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (THANA), Warangal chapter, has written to the collector to make the 250-bed government hospital functional. They are demanding that antiviral medicines must be supplied to all, including the private hospitals with ICU facilities.
Dr V. Rakesh, president of THANA, said, “We are demanding anti-viral drugs and clearance for plasma therapy in the private sector. It has to be a public-private partnership in districts to reduce fatalities. The private hospitals in districts are not like those in Hyderabad. We have to display our hospital rates, charges and taxes paid on our display boards. It would be very wrong otherwise as serious cases are being reported at alarming rates.” Warangal Urban has been seeing a lot of cases from June-end. More than 50 doctors in the districts have contracted Covid 19. A 36year-old pediatrician is on ventilator support in a government hospital in Warangal.
The problems in Khammam are similar. There is a terrible manpower shortage, particularly when it comes to paramedical staff and sanitization workers. A senior government doctor, on condition of anonymity, said, “From July 10 to 24, we had seen 105 cases. This was the time the load started increasing and now it has multiplied. Only serious cases are being admitted but there is a shortage of specialists, staff nurses and others. We have only a few specialists who can guide us on the use of high-end drugs and it is because of them that these drugs were procured in the government hospital.”
Private hospitals have started home treatment facilities but only for mild cases as the serious ones are referred to government hospitals.
In Mahbubnagar, only mild and moderate cases that are treated in the government hospitals and all serious cases are referred to Gandhi Hospital or corporate hospitals in Hyderabad. There are only four Covid specialists in government hospitals.
A government doctor at Mahbubnagar said, “We have ventilators and support systems but there are not enough specialists. If one patient is put on ventilator there has to be a specialist, a postgraduate, an ICU nurse and staff to manage but all of them are not available with us.”