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Multi-pronged plan to manage the heavy inflow of patients
A multi-pronged plan is in motion to enable the hospitals to manage the heavy inflow of COVID-19 positive patients, a top health official assured on Friday evening, while sending out a strong plea to everyone to take all preventive measures.
Referring at length to widespread illness being caused by Delta mainly in the Western Province, the Director-General (DG) of Health Services, Dr. Asela Gunawardena reiterates that the preventive measures are a must to control this highly transmissible variant.
Dr. Asela Gunawardena
Agreeing with the Sunday Times that the hospitals have reached saturation point, the DG laid down the plan to meet the needs of the people at this critical juncture.
“Unlike the earlier variant, the proportion of patients developing symptoms is more. The number of patients becoming dependent on oxygen is also more, so people have to be very alert,” he said.
Dr. Gunawardena explains that understandably people even with mild symptoms are rushing to hospital and this has caused an overload of the system.
“We do understand their fear. With the spread of the Delta variant, people are scared and rush to hospital the moment they turn positive. Then the hospital promptly puts them into an isolation unit,” he said, pointing out that when the ‘admission and discharge of patients’ in a specific hospital does not balance out, there is an overload.
Giving a glimpse of what occurs in a state hospital daily, Dr. Gunawardena explains that if the ‘discharge’ rate is lower than the ‘admission’ rate, congestion and overcrowding are inevitable. In the past few days, admissions have been high while the discharge rate is low.
“Now, our admissions are not less, but our discharge rate is picking up. The cases are not coming down but seem to be plateauing,” he said.
The multi-pronged plan to stabilize the situation in hospitals is:
The systematic implementation of home-based care (the ‘Patient Home Isolation and Management System’ – PHIMS) not only in the Western Province where it was launched recently but across the country. Under this system, COVID-19 positive patients who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and not in a high-risk category would be managed at home, easing the hospital load.
Conversion of some non-COVID-19 wards to COVID-19 wards until the current crisis is overcome, while ensuring that the hospital’s essential and emergency services are maintained for other patients. This would entail handling essential surgeries and procedures but postponing routine procedures.
Turning some intermediate care centres (ICCs) into ‘screening centres’ so that patients can be screened here for COVID-19 (where triaging takes place) without sending them directly to hospitals. Thereafter, the symptomatic patients will be sent to hospital, kept at the ICC after evaluation of home status or sent home for home-based care.
| The numbers and plea to get the jab Don’t wait for what you think is “good”, all vaccines being administered in Sri Lanka are good and give protection. So try to get the vaccine as soon as possible, said Dr. Asela Gunawardena. The vaccines being injected in the country are – AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Sputnik V, Pfizer and Moderna. Get the vaccine to prevent unnecessary deaths and severe disease. You may get mild COVID-19 but the vaccine prevents severe disease and death, said Dr. Gunawardena, urging anyone in the over-60 group in the Western Province who has not taken the vaccine to “please walk into a vaccination centre in your area or the nearest hospital where the vaccination is available”. Any vaccination centre giving the second dose will give you the first dose if you have not got it, he said. The numbers When asked about the number of people who have got COVID-19 after the first and both doses and who have died, the DG said that they are in the process of analyzing the data. Have there been deaths? According to Dr. Gunawardena while they are analyzing this data, they have found that most of the deaths, 75% are among those over-60 years of age and among this percentage about 90% have not been vaccinated.
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| Where Delta is Dr. Asela Gunwardena delves into the genetic sequencing report submitted by the Sri Jayewardenepura University on Friday. Here are the findings: The Delta variant (the Indian variant or B.1.617) is predominant in the Western Province. A few clusters of Delta have been identified in Galle and Matara. A few clusters of Delta have also been reported from earlier in Jaffna. A very few cases of Delta have been found in Kalawana in Ratnapura. The samples sequenced from other parts of the country show the Alpha variant (the United Kingdom variant or B.1.1.7). Don’t be apathetic with regard to preventive measures, urges Dr. Gunawardena stressing that Delta spreads very fast. The preventive measures are:
Wearing the face mask ‘properly’ whenever out of home.
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