Balancing of duties in hospitals important

In these difficult times when hospitals are crowded, they have to balance their duties carefully and always adhere to the health precautions to prevent the staff from getting infected, said Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle.

She said that those seeking hospital admission for other illnesses or procedures are being triaged for COVID-19. As the new strain (the UK variant) is highly infective, the vaccination of healthcare staff was advanced to April 29. It will take at least another two to three weeks for them to get full protection. Even though there is no guarantee that they will not catch the infection if they get exposed, they will get only mild disease.

“Normal services in hospitals are also being cut by 50%. While such reduction is to keep the capacity for COVID-19 patients, we must ensure that other patients are not compromised. Most hospitals are only gradually decreasing their normal services, not cutting them by 50% all at once. If there is a surge of COVID-19 and there are large numbers of cases, there's no option,” she said, adding that the government is also increasing the number of Intermediate Care Centres (ICCs).

Around 300 medical personnel following M.Sc and diploma courses have been mobilized to help healthcare personnel.

Any plans for home-based care?

“We are still working on home-based care. Today’s (Thursday’s) Task Force meeting discussed homebased care at length, with different opinions being expressed. Some are for it, others are totally against it,” said Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle.

She said that the possibility of home-based care for asymptomatic (without symptoms) COVID-19 positive patients with strong monitoring through a hotline is being looked at closely. A decision may be made next week.

General Practitioners (GPs) have volunteered to monitor patients if such home-based care is introduced. We may start with the Western Province. The system would be to call the asymptomatic patients day and night and check whether they need hospitalization at some point, added the State Minister.

Dr. Fernandopulle requested support from international agencies for a major risk communication campaign.