Set up Ward-level health team for better COVID management

Sir,

On May 25, one of my family members started experiencing fever at 5 pm. At around 6 pm, I took him to a Super-speciality Hospital in the city where the RAT test was conducted which turned positive.

The doctors had put him on basic Covid medicine and had advised to stay in home isolation. Since we had the facility of providing home isolation we ensured that all the necessary things from oximeter to thermometer were purchased, provided medication and monitored that his vitals are stable.

But the most pathetic part was that four days after the test turned positive, the Mysuru unique code and SRFID was generated and was sent on the registered cellphone informing that a call would be made to us.

After 24 hours, a call came from DC Office Control Room asking for the details of the patient, family and their health condition. On the sixth day morning, a pre-recorded call came asking the patient to give his response to basic questions by pressing the numbers.

To my surprise, there was no call from the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) or from the Triage team or no one from the Corporation visited to provide the health kits or to look into the condition of the patient.

Though the City Corporation claims to have constituted Ward-level Committees and send teachers to check on those in home isolation nothing such happened in reality.

If this is the case in MCC limits, what will be the fate of patients in rural areas. When cities like Mumbai, Kochi and other places have Ward Committees from the concerned Corporation to track the patients and verify and update the patient condition, why can’t it be adopted in Mysuru city?

When we have such a good infrastructure and technology, why should it take four days to create a MYSID or six days to answer an automated call? This bitter experience has created fear in me that our administration is still not equipped to handle an epidemic like Covid-19.

I urge the authorities to at least reach out to the patients within 48 hours so that the patient condition does not deteriorate further and see that he or she is shifted to the nearest hospital before his vitals collapse.

– K. Shivakumar, Gangotri Layout, 26.5.2021

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