Photo by Ashok Sinha
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By Saad Alam Khan
New Delhi: In an effort to reduce COVID mortality, the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday asked Capital’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to provide expert tele-consultation on effective clinical management of COVID-19 patients in the ICUs of 61 hospitals in 17 states through tele/video consultation.
Following the directive, AIIMS New Delhi immediately began this exercise on Wednesday afternoon which was led by Dr. Anand Mohan, HOD, Pulmonary Medicine. In all, ten hospitals including nine from Mumbai (Maharashtra) and one from Goa, with more than 1000 beds for COVID patients including isolation beds, oxygen supported and ICU beds, participated in this. These hospitals were: NESCO Jumbo Facility, P South (Phase II); CIDCO Mulund Jumbo Facility – T (Phase II); Malad Infiniti Mall Jumbo Facility, PN (Phase III); Jio Convention Centre Jumbo Facility, HE (Phase III); Nair Hospital; MCGM Seven Hills; MMRDA BKC Jumbo Facility, HE (Phase II); MMRDA BKC Jumbo Facility, HE (Phase I); Mumbai Metro Dahisar Jumbo Facility, T (Phase II); and Government Medical College and Hospital, Panaji, Goa.
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Tele-consultation is a critical component of the clinical intervention protocol for COVID-19. Only hospitals with bed capacity between 500 – 1000 have been selected for the tele-consultation exercise in the states of Delhi, Gujarat, Telangana, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.
The Ministry stated that up to two doctors handling ICU patients from each hospital along with the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) of the concerned State would participate in the Video Consultation interaction, where a specialist team of doctors from AIIMS, New Delhi would provide expert guidance and knowledge support to doctors manning ICUs in State hospitals. It added that a calendar of the expert-led tele-consultation sessions had been drawn up to cover the States till July 31. .
The move to involve experts from AIIMS was a part of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s holistic response and management strategy for COVID-19, the ministry stated. It added that “the Centre remains committed to reducing case fatality rate by ensuring effective clinical management of all COVID-19 positive patients”.
It may be mentioned that till Wednesday, in all 20,642 deaths were reported because of COVID-19. Of these deaths, 482 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.
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