KINS Desk
SRINAGAR, March 18 (KINS): President J&K Society of Consultant Doctors (JKSCD) Dr Maajed Jehangeer Wednesday said health care infrastructure and resources, particularly as it relates to the care of the most critically ill patients, are likely to be strained in coming weeks.
“We appreciate government initiatives to help stop the spread of this contagion and are particularly satisfied over the mass public health awareness messages conveyed and measures implemented at the grassroots level. However, more needs to be done and complacency at this hour can be a critical mistake. JKSCD holds the view that at this crucial juncture, it is appropriate to be forward thinking regarding those patients who will, nevertheless, become infected since our resources to deal with this pandemic are very limited,” he said in a statement to Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).
He said based on available scientific data, “we advise the government to thoughtfully review all precautions needed to avoid public gatherings of more than ten people at a time”.
“Public should be strongly advised to refrain from avoidable hospital visits. We advise making revised duty rotas for healthcare providers so that all medical professionals are not present in the hospital at all times as this can unnecessarily increase their risk of exposure and they may unwittingly become vectors and victims of this disease. JKSCD has scientific reason to believe that there may be patients who are, nevertheless shedding virus and exposing other inpatients, outpatients and health care providers to the risk of contracting COVID 19. Moreover, health care providers are a valuable resource during these testing times as such, their skills should be managed and utilised effectively,” he said.
Dr Masood Rashid, Official Spokesman, JKSCD said for the next eight weeks, JKSCD recommends that all elective hospital work including general OPDs be stopped and only round the clock emergency medical and surgical care be provided.
“As per ACS guidelines, we strongly recommend to postpone, cancel or, at the very least minimize electively scheduled operations, endoscopies or other invasive procedures until we have passed the predicted inflection point in the exposure graph and can be confident that our health care infrastructure can support a potentially rapid and overwhelming uptick in critical patient care needs,” he said.
The JKSCD statement added that personal protection equipment, masks, gowns, sanitizers should be made available for hospital staff on job and same should be used judiciously to avoid an impending catastrophic situation in our health care system.(KINS)
