Every panchayat in Ernakulam district braces up for virus war

WIth primary treatment centres,

ambulances and testing facilities besides a pool of doctors and nurses, every panchayat in Ernakulam, the industrial district of Kerala, is ready to fight COVID-19

The district administration is geared up to protect its population of 3.2 million from the attack of the deadly novel coronavirus.

Unveiling the plan, an official from the district administration on Tuesday said the healthcare institutions which respond to the COVID-19 emergency have been classified into Plan A, B, and C.

The classification is based on whether the institution falls under the public or private sector and also considering the capacity and facilities available at the institution.

 

The district administration has converted two hospitals - the Government Medical College Hospital and PVS Hospital- into COVID care centres in the district.

While the Medical College Hospital with a strengthened ICU is a 500-bed facility for managing COVID-19, PVS hospital is equipped with 14 ventilators, 70 ICU beds and 70 single rooms.

The district administration has planned a firstline treatment centre at the ward-level in case if the virus cases explode.

"A primary treatment centre is a temporary facility created to augment the healthcare system of the district and provide care for 70-80 per cent of patients. This facility is created by converting existing facilities like community halls in local panchayats into treatment centres where patients in the locality can reach out for care," the administration said in its plan.

It says: "We have to decentralise the system and make a primary treatment centre/first line treatment centre at a ward level. In every ward, there is a community hall/auditoriums. A total of 25-bed primary treatment centre could be set up in every ward".

There are 80 items that are needed to set up a centre.

"What can be taken from the field will be set up by the community and other things which are mostly medical items like are provided by the centre. People who got coronavirus and have immunity are included as volunteers," it says.

According to the plan, every panchayat needs to have an ambulance and testing facility. Testing to classify persons as COVID-19 positive or not need to be done. Patients who can't be managed at panchayat-level would be moved to the taluk-level.

The plan says a field response home care team would be set up - two per panchayat.

The team includes nurses/doctors and their major motive is to visit people with mild symptoms, test and clinically assess.

Since a parallel system would be created to manage coronavirus, Primary Health Centres are exempted from the clinical management of the virus and they could handle routine primary care, it says.

In the case of massive outbreak in the community-level, mobile sample collection units would be set up at the taluk- level.

"Samples will be collected from every panchayat under that taluk at previously designated points. Mobile sample collection cabinets have been already designated," the district administration says in its plan.

The district administration, expecting shortage of PPE kits, has taken initiatives to locally manufacture customised PPEs. While hand sanitisers are manufactured with the support of CSR, cloth masks are being manufactured with the support of the community, it says.

Noting that a total of 654 ambulances are available in Ernakulam district, the administration said in advanced emergency response plan there would be two ambulances per panchayat.