Covid patients mix up in TN hospitals, health secretary warns of action
Chennai:Health Secretary Dr Beela Rajesh on Sunday said that the department had given strict instructions to the hospital authorities that the Covid-19 positive and negative cases should not be treated in a single ward.
Responding to the question on the Deccan Chronicle report on mix-up at the Omandurar Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital on Sunday, the Health Secretary said that it was doctors at the hospital who classify the high risk and low risk patients.
“We have been instructed to maintain a strict 10ft distance between patients. But there will be no question of treating positive and negative cases in the same ward. The positive cases will be treated in separate rooms. If there is violation, strict action will be taken,” she said.
However, no orders have been issued so far to probe into the incident based on the report. Though the health secretary claimed that positive cases are being treated in separate rooms, the reality on the ground appears to be different. DC has accessed a fresh video in which three people, out of two people who confessed themselves as tested positive, shared a ward with a person from Koyambedu who was discharged on Saturday after he had tested negative.
The positive person from Mannady, who was brought to the ward on Friday, told DC over phone that his sample tested positive on Saturday and another person, who was admitted in the same ward, tested negative on the same day. He said that the negative person was being treated at the same ward since Friday night.
It has been learnt that one more patient, a lady who tested positive, had been admitted to the same ward on Sunday after the person from Koyambedu who tested negative was discharged from the ward at 11.50am on Saturday. Now there are three people in the five-bed ward.
56-year-old Covid-19 positive patient on Saturday told DC that he was admitted at the MCH on April 2 at 6pm after he developed symptoms of flu, had tested positive for Covid 19 on April 6.
