‘Use O2 beds judiciously’

THANE: With the increase in positive cases in the city and shortage of oxygen, the Thane district collector, Rajesh Narvekar, had a meeting with doctors from private hospitals and Indian Medical Association’s Thane chapter on Friday.

They discussed measures to handle the current situation better and also understand the clinical guidelines to treat patients along with understanding how to make optimum use of the available oxygen.

“We have received many important suggestions from the doctors and have also asked them to use oxygen as well as Remdesivir judiciously. We shall work on ways to improve the situation with the help of the suggestions given by them,” said Narvekar.

Private doctors shared their views on how they were planning to use the jumbo oxygen cylinders for patients who need it only for a few hours. This will help save the oxygen in the centralised line for patients who are in much more need of oxygen.

“We can have some Dura oxygen cylinders handy with the district collector, which can be used with the help of a van with a hydraulic operating system. Hospitals that are in dire need of oxygen need not shift the patients to other hospitals and take risk in such situations; these Dura cylinders will be helpful in such cases. When hospitals get their supply of oxygen they can replace a portion with the collector’s office,” said Dr Santosh Kadam, president, IMA.

Private laboratories are having an overload of testing and hence some of them will now be given permission by the civil surgeon to conduct antigen testing as well. This data will then be sent to the civil hospital, it will help keep a tab on the positive cases. However, these labs have to strictly ensure that the antigen kits used are ICMR approved.

Doctors from private hospitals discussed how Covid patients who have tested negative but have breathing difficulties and visit non-Covid hospitals. Some get admitted and were in need of Remdesivir.