An attack on a junior resident doctor at Hyderabad’s Osmania General Hospital (OGH) has highlighted a lack of proper COVID-19 care infrastructure at the hospital, which was allegedly housing individuals who are suspected to have COVID-19 along with those who were later confirmed positive.
On Tuesday, a 55-year-old man had been admitted to the hospital’s designated isolation area. At the time, he was only suspected to have contracted coronavirus and did not have any significant travel history. However, he was admitted to the same ward as two individuals who later turned out to be positive for COVID-19, and the man demanded to be discharged. During an argument with the staff, the man’s son allegedly attacked a junior doctor on duty.
The man later tested positive for coronavirus as well, though he had likely contracted it prior to his arrival at the hospital.
“The government had declared Gandhi hospital a designated COVID care hospital. Osmania still sees non-COVID cases, but as per government protocols there is an isolation ward at the hospital where suspected cases are to be admitted. This itself can be risky,” says one source from OGH.
He further added that the isolation ward has been poorly set up, with individuals having relevant history pertaining to the disease kept in the same ward as those who don’t.
The 55-year-old man is a diabetic patient who was brought to the hospital with diabetic ketoacidosis (a condition wherein there isn’t enough insulin in the body). While doctors were examining him and took an X-Ray of his lungs, they noticed signs of pneumonia. “Given the current situation pertaining to coronavirus, he was admitted to the isolation ward and his samples were sent for testing,” the source adds. Following this, the man was given a COVID-19 test, which later returned with positive results.
Officials are yet to ascertain whether the man had any relevant contact history which may have exposed him to the virus, according to the staff member, who spoke to TNM on the condition of anonymity. He also did not have any travel history relevant to the disease.
One source said that preliminary investigations were also looking to see if there was a chance that this was an instance of community transmission.
“OGH was supposed to be a proper COVID care centre, but there is no proper infrastructure in place. Many of us have been asking for patients to be shifted to Gandhi Hospital for this reason,” states a doctor from the Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA). “Suspected and confirmed cases must be housed in separate wards and there should be no room for such gross error.”
TJUDA has also asked for patients in COVID-19 isolation wards at OGH to be shifted to isolation at Gandhi Hospital, which they say is better equipped to handle COVID cases.
"All of them here are suspected cases. We don't know who is positive and who is not, to isolate them. In fact, the person whose son attacked the doctor tested positive yesterday at 5 pm," said Dr Nagendra, Medical Superintendent of OGH to TNM.