All outpatient departments at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, barring the anti-retroviral therapy clinic and the fever clinic, will shut from Monday as the facility has been turned into a 500-bed Covid-19 treatment centre.
The anti-retroviral therapy (ART) clinic has been kept open because the patients who are treated in the clinic collect medicines from there. “They will suffer serious consequences if they miss a cycle of their medicines,” a hospital official said.
Only a few other hospitals run the ART clinic, so closing it would inconvenience HIV patients.
“Our fever clinic - where anyone with fever and other symptoms suggestive of Covid-19 are examined - will also remain open,” said Indranil Biswas, the medical superintendent of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital.
Patients who were undergoing dialysis and chemotherapy at the hospital would be informed by the health department about where they can undergo their next cycles of treatment.
“The Calcutta Medical College authorities have sent the names of patients who were undergoing chemotherapy and dialysis at the hospital to the health department. The department will soon contact them and inform them about the next course of action,” said a health department official.
When MR Bangur Hospital was converted into a Covid-19 hospital, patients who used to undergo chemotherapy and dialysis there were given alternatives near their homes, the official said.
All departments at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital have been transformed into Covid-19 wards.
“A patient with cardiac ailments who also tests positive for Covid-19 has to be kept at the cardiology department. Besides treating her/him for the novel coronavirus infection, doctors also have to monitor the heart. Similarly, patients with neurological problems testing positive for Covid-19 have to be treated at the neuro department because they will also have to be monitored for neurological problems. So, effectively all departments have to stay prepared for Covid-19 patients,” a health department official said.
