The greatest concern of the state government amid the rising Covid cases is the depleting workforce in the healthcare sector as hundreds of doctors, nurses, health administrators, laboratory technicians, swab sample collectors in government and private healthcare facilities are testing positive and are in isolation.
The government is taking several measures, including rehiring contract employees, asking those with mild or no symptoms to rejoin after the seven-day isolation, advising healthcare workers to minimise exposure by controlling out patients and advising administrators to work from home.
“Our biggest concern is manpower. Our focus is on how to keep the healthcare sector operational with so many people getting infected every day,” Narayan Swaroop Nigam, Bengal’s health secretary, said on Saturday.
“We are taking several measures to keep the healthcare sector functioning across the state. One big help has been the revised guideline on the period of isolation issued by the health ministry,” he said.
The new health ministry guidelines brought the isolation period down to seven days if there are no symptoms for three days.
Hundreds of healthcare workers have been infected since the Covid surge started in the last week of December. Many hospitals have partially or completely cut down many non-Covid services because of the shortage in personnel.
Narayana Health, which runs three hospitals in and around the city, had more than 250 healthcare personnel in isolation on Saturday.
“Our renal transplant and general pediatrics departments have been temporarily closed because of the manpower shortage. Cardiac and general surgery departments are functioning at 50 per cent capacity,” said R Venkatesh, regional director, east, of Narayana Health.
At SSKM Hospital, the neurology department has around 10 doctors who have tested positive for Covid and are in isolation, said hospital officials.
At Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital and Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, many departments have stopped admissions because of shortage of personnel, said health department officials.
“We have asked the government hospitals to focus only on emergency cases,” said Nigam.
Health officials said the out patients department of government hospitals have been advised to operate in a “controlled” manner because most doctors are infected.
Public health experts said during such a healthcare crisis, only those requiring emergency treatment should go to a hospital.
“We expect people not to come for planned treatment unless it is an emergency. This would help in two ways — reduce the chances of more infections and reduce the pressure on our healthcare system,” said Abhijit Chowdhury, member of Bengal’s Covid task force.
“We are hoping for this surge not to continue for more than a few weeks, the time when our infrastructure will be tested the most,” Chowdhury said.
Nigam said the health department has started renewing contracts of healthcare personnel including doctors who were hired on contractual basis, to replace the unwell workforce.
A health department official said those who have completed the seven-day isolation are asked to rejoin immediately if they have no symptoms.
The CEO of a private hospital said about 40 per cent of its 200-odd infected personnel are ready to return after the seven-day isolation period.
“The rest of them still have mild symptoms like fatigue and body ache and would take some time to rejoin,” said the CEO