Seven-day work, 14-day home-quarantine and back to work.
That is the routine the teams of doctors and other medical staff attending to coronavirus patients at Lucknow's King George's Medical University are following.
The hospital management has constituted three teams with 27 members each -- a senior doctor, a senior resident, six junior doctors, a sister in-charge, six nurses, six ward boys and as many sanitation workers to take care of the coronavirus positive patients at the facility.
The teams take turn to work in the isolation ward for a seven days. And when one team is on work, the other two are in self-quarantine, KGMU spokesman, Dr. Sudhir Singh, told PTI.
For the seven days each team is on duty, they don't come out of the isolation ward. They work there, take their food there and rest there in turn, Singh said.
On completing their seven-day schedule, the members of team come out of the ward post proper-screening and they go directly in home-quarantine, Singh said.
Besides taking full care of themselves while in the isolation ward, they have strictly been instructed to follow all norms prescribed during the quarantine period, he said, adding special care is taken when the team is entering the isolation ward back for work post quarantine.
A junior doctor at the hospital had earlier tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to the isolation ward where he is is now recovering, Dr Singh said.
"For the past one month our teams have been working among those infected with the coronavirus. Among them was a Canada women. She has now been discharged after fully recovering," the KGMU spokesman said.
Prof. Virendra Ratam, the head of the KGMU Medicine Department and the overall in charge of the isolation ward has constituted the three teams.
Dr. Sandeep Tiwari, a member of the COVID-19 task force at the KGMU, said there are 200 beds in the isolation ward of the hospital. Presently, seven patients are admitted.
If the need arises, isolation wards can be set up in other departments and the total capacity could be raised to 4,000 beds, Dr Tiwari said.
As of now, only serious patients related to heart ailments, cancer and pregnant women who are due are being admitted.
Dr Tiwari said coronavirus positive patients are also being treated at SGPGIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in the state capital. But their isolation wards are smaller.
The KGMU is the biggest hospital which has the capacity to admit patients in big numbers, Dr Tiwari said.
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