One private hospital in Kolkata stopped testing asymptomatic patients for Covid before admission from Thursday.
Several other hospitals are doing the rapid antigen test for Covid, instead of the time-consuming but more confirmatory RT-PCR test, as part of the routine screening before admission.
The norm since the outbreak of Covid two years ago has been to test all patients for the disease before admission.
As the number of daily new Covid cases has come down significantly, many hospitals in Kolkata are easing restrictions for the first time since the pandemic struck two years ago.
The new decisions have reduced the waiting time for patients requiring non-Covid treatment.
On Thursday, Bengal recorded 467 new Covid cases. Kolkata accounted for 63 cases.
The RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences on Thursday stopped subjecting all patients turning up for admission to a Covid test.
“In continuation to the Indian Council of Medical Research advisory, we have stopped testing patients coming for admission with no Covid symptoms for Covid. This applies to patients coming through the Emergency or for planned admission. This will help unclog the Emergency by speeding up the patient flow to the wards and critical care areas. Emergency beds will free up faster,” said R. Venkatesh, regional director, east, Narayana Health, which runs the RN Tagore Hospital.
“This process will also help perform elective surgeries without any associated delays.”
Patients with Covid symptoms will continue to be tested for the disease before admission, he said.
Several other hospitals are subjecting asymptomatic patients turning up for admission to the rapid antigen test (RAT), instead of the RT-PCR test.
The RAT yields results within half an hour, whereas it takes four to six hours, or even more, to know the outcome of an RT-PCR test.
“We are conducting the RAT for patients who are not having any Covid symptoms. This has ensured less waiting period for patients at the Emergency and lesser cost before admission,” said Rupak Barua, group CEO of AMRI Hospitals.
He said only those who test positive in the rapid test will be subjected to an RT-PCR test.
Peerless Hospital is planning to do away with Covid wards. “We will appeal to the state government to allow us to convert all Covid wards into non-Covid ones and keep the few patients who test positive in single-bed rooms with negative air pressure,” said Sudipta Mitra, chief executive of Peerless Hospital.
However, some hospitals like Fortis want to continue with the Covid testing protocol till the government asks them not to. “We have reduced the number of beds for Covid management. However, we continue to be vigilant,” said Pratyush Srivastava, zonal director, Fortis Hospital, Anandapur.