[ Amar Sangno ]
ITANAGAR, Jun 23: A leukaemia patient who had come back from Guwahati (Assam) along with his brother reportedly evaded admission to the TRIHMS on Monday evening.
Sources said that they had been advised by the medical team at the Banderdewa check gate to go straight to the TRIHMS for admission. However, they did not do so after learning that they would be kept in the same ward with suspect and confirmed Covid-19 patients.
The sources said that when the patient and his brother arrived at the TRIHMS, the doctors were busy shifting a patient referred by the district hospital in Tawang.
“According to the patient, they evaded admission after realizing that they would be sharing the same, poorly partitioned, ward with suspect and confirmed Covid-19 patients,” the sources said.
“The patient’s brother claimed that the nurses on duty told them that two positive and a few suspect patients had been admitted in the ward and advised them to better go somewhere else,” the sources said.
When the matter was reported to the doctors on duty, the contact tracing team of the capital region was alerted. The team traced them in Lekhi.
The contact tracing team collected swab samples from three people, including the wife of the attendant, and advised them to observe strict home quarantine.
The TRIHMS does have isolation beds for suspect, confirmed and high-risk patients, but in the same ward, adjacent to one another.
“We have 12 separate beds for suspect cases, five separate beds for confirmed cases, and four ICU beds,” said Dr Tamar Pale, the TRIHMS’ nodal officer for Covid-19.
“Since we are functioning as a Covid and non-Covid hospital, there are problems; but we are trying our best to give the best services,” Dr Tamar said.
Confirming the incident, he said, “That leukaemia patient was supposed to be shifted to the suspect patients’ room, but he left out of fear and hesitation. The doctor on duty informed the authority concerned.”
Sources informed that a similar incident had occurred earlier, when a patient was referred to the TRIHMS by the PTC quarantine centre. However, the patient returned to the PTC as he was reluctant to be admitted in the same ward with suspect and confirmed Covid-19 patients.
The Arunachal Times has learnt that a few doctors have raised the issue with the TRIHMS authority, suggesting keeping separate wards or blocks for suspect and confirmed Covid-19 patients.
As per the standard operating procedure issued by the health department, based on the MHA’s advisory, cancer, cardiac, renal, and other medical cases returning from other states with valid medical documents should be kept in isolation wards of the dedicated Covid health centre or Covid hospital, depending on the severity of the case, along with an attendant, for RT-PCR test after three days.
If the test result comes out negative, the patient should be referred to the department concerned for further management. However, if the patient requires urgent medical consultation while waiting for the result, medical care by the department concerned on call should be given in the isolation ward of the Covid health centre, adhering to all safety precautions, until the report of the RT-PCR/TrueNat test is received.
