PANAJI
The Health Department through Dean of Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim Dr SM Bandekar has roped in 118 students of 3rd year MBBS course to reach out to home isolating Covid-19 patients in the state.
Speaking to the press, the Health Minister said, “118 students of 3rd year MBBS degree course have volunteered to help us in reaching out to home isolating Covid-19 patients. Their services will be used in batches and they will directly report to State Epidemiologist Dr Utkarsh Betodkar.”
He said that the outreach in terms of calls to Covid patients under home isolation is more than 80 per cent.
The Department sought to highlight that the digitization of patients records and the entire strategy to monitor home isolating patients has resulted in over 50 patients, who were under home isolation, being identified by health officers and doctors concerned for shifting to medical facilities for quick medical attention.
“This is what we wanted to achieve. They were shifted in a timely manner to a medical facility. Dr Utkarsh is monitoring the digital dashboard. We have prevented these cases from turning critical and averted mortalities,” the Health Minister stated
He also informed that the duration of mandatory and monitored home isolation which has now been extended to 17 days has helped in reducing further cases and deaths.
In a positive development, the Health Minister further revealed that the plasma bank at Goa Medical College and Hospital in Bambolim now receives around 25 packs of plasma a day on an average. The storage capacity at GMC’s plasma bank is 2,000 packs.
He disclosed that the South Goa District Hospital will soon be equipped with an Intensive Treatment Unit (ITU) and a high-dependency unit. The hospital presently has 21 private rooms.
He said that the department’s focus will now also be on ensuring that non-Covid patients do not get neglected and on resuming teaching and tertiary medical care facilities at GMC.
“Stringent SOPs will be discussed in the coming meeting. Online classes are not possible due to the need of practical knowledge at GMC,” he stated.
