Not just camps for patients, GH doctors, staff stayed back

Unlike a routine day, officials and staff of the state health department and also medical professionals of the GH and PHCs and even village health nurses and health inspectors had to camp at Egmore and DPH training centre to reach out to the patients. About 2,000 persons, including doctors and nurses, were brought from the districts not affected by floods. In addition, 134 mobile medical units and jeeps were pressed into service. “The attendance was almost 100 per cent. Our advantage is that many had stayed back in hostels and pooling in manpower had never been a problem,” claims J. Radhakrishnan, State Health secretary.

The Chromepet GH, flooded with rainwater, had to function temporarily from a marriage hall. It later resumed its services from its present premises. The Pozhichalur GH was also marooned.

Throughout, there was high level of dedication and selfless service, Radhakrishnan asserted. Most of the government hospitals and also drug warehouses had been built on elevated lands and hence were not inundated. Through over 1,105 special camps, government hospitals screened about 2.5 lakh patients per day.

“Our present mission and real challenge now is to prevent the spread of communicable diseases for about four months from now,” he said.

The contingency plan was designed meticulously identifying issues, mobilising clinical and non-clinical staff, transporting patients, etc. “We formed the Quick Response Team and it coordinated various tasks, including running generators, ensuring oxygen cylinder supply, LPG supply among others,” he said and added that the hospital had to reduce power consumption by switching off air conditioners and other non-essentials by consolidating the use of generators. As to the question of discharging in-patients, he asked, “Where will they go in the rain. We had to keep several of them, though they were clinically fit for discharge, in the interest of their safety.”

“Fortunately, our suppliers ensured refill of water cans, LPG and diesel which helped us to cope with the situation. We brought our nurses from our nursing hostel and our medical team performed only emergency surgeries while deferring elective surgeries,” he said.

The hospital operated its generators for about 60 – 70 hours at a stretch and when the oxygen supplies decreased on Dec.2, four patients were shifted to Apollo. “We explained the position to our patients and their relatives and we were very conservative in managing the crisis. We performed emergency operations and treated stroke patients during the blackout for three days,” Raghunath explains. Though the hospital could not adhere to its regular menu, it made sure that patients were provided with qualitatively good food.