Planned surgeries are getting cancelled because patients are testing positive for Covid-19 during routine investigations, doctors and officials at a number of hospitals said.

Last Saturday at Peerless Hospital, three laparoscopic cholecystectomies (procedures to remove gallbladder and gallstones) were postponed because all three patients tested positive for Covid-19 in routine screening.

At the RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, three out of six scheduled renal transplants last week had to be deferred because the patients had tested positive for Covid-19. None of them had symptoms, said an official of the hospital.

Patients in need of surgeries and procedures for a number of ailments, including cancer and renal failure, were staying away from hospitals during the lockdown and immediately after it was lifted for fear of catching the coronavirus.

Such people are now slowly going back to hospitals. But many of them are testing positive for Covid-19 in routine screening and are having their procedures deferred.

Doctors said that except for emergency cases, they are waiting for patients to test negative for Covid before scheduling their procedures. “This is being done for patients’ safety because the coronavirus damages lungs and surgeries could be life-threatening in such situations,” said a doctor.

“In the past week, we had about 10 surgeries deferred, including renal transplant, cancer, knee replacement and coronary bypass. None of the patients who tested positive for Covid had any symptoms. Surgeries can be done after the patients turn negative,” said Sudipta Mitra, the chief executive of Peerless Hospital.

A man in his 60s had come to Calcutta in March for renal transplant at Peerless Hospital. The donor, his nephew, had come along with him.

“The necessary clearances from the health department could not be processed because of the lockdown. Recently, the clearances came but the donor and the recipient both tested positive for Covid-19. Now, both of them are in a guesthouse, waiting to test negative,” Mitra said.

At AMRI Hospitals, an elderly man had undergone neurosurgery in April. Surgeons had kept a piece of the skull bone in the abdomen and planned to replant it in the skull later.

“The person had to undergo surgery to get the bone replanted. But he tested positive for Covid-19,” said Prakhar Gyanseh, a consultant in neuroanaesthesia and neurocritical care at AMRI, Dhakuria. The patient underwent the surgery last week after being cured of the coronavirus infection.

A woman who had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage a few days back and was admitted to the hospital tested positive for Covid and was treated at the Covid ICU. On Thursday, the procedure to remove the clot will be done, said Gyanesh.

“The number of surgeries is going up and so are the cases getting deferred. Ten per cent of my patients are testing positive for Covid before surgery,” said surgical oncologist Gautam Mukhopadhyay.