RIMS medical and paramedical staff are facing worrying practical problems while handling the Malaysian national Covid-19 patient, who is admitted there, an insider said on Friday.

One of those directly involved in the treatment of the 22-year-old woman at RIMS told The Telegraph that the patient was responding well but health workers did not have enough personal protective equipment.

This apart, the patient needs counselling, but there’s no one to do so.

The health worker, who did not want to be identified in any manner, said they did not have face shields and boots.

“Also, those who handle coronavirus-related cases directly are not senior doctors. The one here is an assistant professor of preventive medicine,” the insider said.

The health worker said it would have been good had someone reassured the patient.

The insider said it was normal for anyone detected with Covid-19 to feel nervous while vomiting and sneezing. “But without PPE, how can we go near her and assure her?”

“She is after all far away from her home and she needs to be told everything is fine and her treatment is moving in the right direction. But due to the lack of PPE, there is no one to do so. She is agitated and arguing with sisters on duty. Yesterday (Thursday), the patient had an argument with the sister on duty when told to stay inside her room,” the health worker added.

RIMS director Dr D.K. Singh and superintendent Dr Vivek Kashyap did not respond to The Telegraph’s repeated calls.

Around 4pm, their jointly signed memo circulated on a WhatsApp group with RIMS employees as members, which The Telegraph was privy to, suggested they were not comfortable in sharing information to the media.

“It is being observed that sensitive information related to RIMS is being shared with the media in an unauthorised manner. It has become very easy due to the availability of social media. In the situation of Covid-19 we are required to behave sensitively and responsibly. By this letter all officers and workers are being appealed not to share any information related to Covid-19 infection with the media unnecessarily. Treat it as urgent,” the memo reads.

RIMS deputy superintendent Dr Sanjay Kumar claimed everything was fine.