ESIC hospital is Covid-19 hotbed

Delay in tests of suspected patients led to spread of pandemic

Medical staff at the employee state insurance corporation (ESIC) hospital are amongst those who have been exposed to the Covid-19 patients.

On Wednesday, five technicians from the microbiology lab at the ESIC hospital tested positive, taking the total number of infected personnel at the hospital to 35. The staff is blaming the management for what they allege is a careless attitude.

Staff members said Covid-19 tests were being delayed on suspected patients from among the staff, leading to the spread of infection. The hospital administration reportedly warned the staff to keep quiet.

The ESIC hospital at Sanatnagar also has a medical college on its campus which functions under the union ministry of labour.

A senior nurse was among the first to get exposed to a Covid-19 patient in the oncology ward on June 8. She was asked to stay in quarantine and tested on June 11. She was negative, and was asked to return to work. She was tested again on June 18 and she tested positive this time. She was shifted to an isolation ward in the same hospital.

On June 24, the X-ray report showed her condition had worsened and she was shifted to a private corporate hospital. Hospital employees told Deccan Chronicle that despite awareness of the intensity of the outbreak, they were not being provided with PPE kits initially. “Most of us have already been exposed to the virus,” an employee said.

A senior male nurse said that a professor of gynecology from a city-based government hospital was invited to inspect upcoming preparations for medical college admissions. It later emerged that the professor tested positive on June 5. ESIC employees who had interacted with her were then sent into quarantine.

The centre is constantly criticising the Telangana state government for bad management and not doing tests on time to control Covid-19.