STAFF REPORTER GUWAHATI:
Midnight Critical Care Service for COVID-19 Patients in Assam: Worried over the high rate of death of COVID patients at night in medical colleges and other hospitals, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that senior doctors should also attend duty at night. He also favoured the installation of CCTV cameras in each hospital ward where COVID patients are under treatment.
Talking to the media after inspecting the GMCH (Gauhati Medical College and Hospital), the Chief Minister said, "It has come to light that the casualty of COVID-19 patients is high at night. To provide better midnight critical care service to the COVID patients senior doctors should also be deployed for duty at night.
"I want the installation of CCTV cameras in all wards meant for COVID-19 patients. This doesn't mean that I doubt the sincerity of doctors and nurses on duty. All I want is to bring everything – the behaviour of doctors, nurses and patients – under a monitoring system.
"In the past three days, the number of COVID-19 positive cases has come down a little. This might be the outcome of the curfew from 2 pm. Now we've increased the curfew by two hours. If we can reduce the COVID positive cases in Guwahati by 300-400 daily, we can do away with the practice of home isolation of COVID-patients. This is because, more often than not, patients in home isolation violate the guidelines that they are supposed to follow strictly.
"Vaccines keep coming to the assam state but not as the situation in the state demands. This is why we haven't been able to meet our target of one lakh inoculation daily. Orders have been placed with Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute. However, the supplies have not been in sync with our demands."
The Chief Minister, however, expressed satisfaction with the arrangement put in place to meet the emergency need of COVID-19 patients. He expressed his gratitude to doctors, nurses and other paramedical staffers for the dedicated service they are rendering round the clock.