Hospitals want to turn focus on non-Covid care | Economic Times

As Covid-19 cases start declining, hospitals across India feel there is an urgent need to turn the focus back on non-Covid care especially on cancer, chronic kidney disease and blood disorders. Medical experts feel that there is a need to recalibrate the emphasis on Covid care as non-Covid care has suffered over the last two months with patients avoiding healthcare facilities for routine procedures like chemotherapy and dialysis. A spokesperson of Max Healthcare told ET, “During the two months of the second wave, there has been a 60-70% fall in non-Covid patients coming for routine therapies like chemotherapy, radiation and dialysis. Since cancer patients and those with chronic kidney ailments are immune compromised, they have avoided healthcare facilities. But with declining Covid numbers, there is a need to bring back these patients and ensure they resume regular examinations and procedures.”Covid admissions have come down drastically. In Delhi, big healthcare facilities are getting 2-3 Covid admissions daily. Dr Arvinder Soin, chairman, Medanta Liver Transplant Institute and lead investigator in Indian randomised control trial of Tocilizumab in Covid, told ET, “Our Covid patient numbers are down by 70-80%. At the peak of the second wave, Medanta (Gurugram) had about 500 patients. We have about 100 now. The proportion of patients in ICUs are more now since patients are recovering from bad Covid. But now, it is time to focus on non-Covid patient care, which had taken a backseat.”With Covid-19 numbers increasing in April, most states had asked hospitals to reserve a certain percentage (ranging from 50-80%) of beds for Covid care. Hospitals feel with the declining numbers, this cap should be removed. Gautam Khanna, CEO, PD Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre, said, “Our Covid beds were full till about 3-4 weeks back. With the cases coming down in Mumbai, some beds are currently vacant… With the second wave, there has certainly been a dip in the number of non-Covid surgeries…We hope that the government regulations would be relaxed by next month. So, we expect surgeries to come back to pre-Covid levels in 3-4 months’ time.”Anil Vinayak, COO, Fortis Healthcare, told ET that there is a need to focus on non Covid care. “In some cities like Bengaluru, our hospitals are still reporting high number of Covid admissions. But, in most others the Covid admissions have gone down. We are talking to governments if we could reduce the dedicated Covid bed numbers. We would gradually see non Covid patients coming back for treatment.”