Medical institutes asked to restart non-Covid ops

State govt’s decision to provide relief to patients who had been waiting for other health care facilities to resume normally

LUCKNOW : With the decline in the Covid case count, the state government has asked all medical institutes to restart non-Covid treatment and operations, as they were before the lockdown.

A circular in this regard has been sent to all medical institutes, including the King George’s Medical University, SGPGI, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, super speciality paediatric institute, Noida, and all state-run medical colleges. It has been stated that all OPD and indoor patient treatment facility will be restarted just as they were before the pandemic.

In February, UP has reported less than 200 fresh cases daily, while the number of active cases is 3,232 against a capacity to admit/treat over one lakh patients.

“In case the number of Covid patients rises, arrangements may be made accordingly,” the circular said.

There are over 55 medical institutes in UP that provide OPD and admission facility to patients. Since the pandemic began and lockdown was imposed in March 2020, the facilities were restricted and some of the colleges were converted into Covid facilities, which made it difficult for non-Covid patients to get treatment.

“This will come as a big relief for patients who had been waiting for other health care facilities to resume. Critical patients were attended on priority, but many who required planned surgeries, had to wait. Such people can now get the facility,” said Dr Sandeep Kapoor, director, Healthcity Hospital and founder of the Arthritis Foundation of Lucknow (AFoL).

From June 2020, government hospitals had gradually started attending to other patients while medical institutes started OPD/other facilities in a restricted manner. But now, health care facilities will be fully operational.