Deloitte makes available playbook to help district admin address surging COVID-19 cases

New Delhi, January 6

Deloitte on Thursday said it is making available a playbook to help district administrations across the country address the rising threat of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

The protocols outlined in the playbook can enable governments to quickly scale the health care support and resources required to address surges in COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) cases, it said in a statement.

The playbook recommends supervised home-based care that communities can easily adopt to assist those who are medically able to recover at home, it added.

“The Deloitte playbook helps bring supervised healthcare to people at home, thereby ‘extending the medical ward’. When implemented, it brings much-needed medical care and resources to rural, under-served and hard to reach communities,” Deloitte Global CEO Punit Renjen said.

This ‘fit-for-purpose’ approach will yield a model that enables broader health equity with access to critical health resources, he added.

“I am convinced that wider adoption of the model will address long-term healthcare challenges at reduced costs. This is true for India and the world,” Renjen noted.

The playbook, designed and supported by Deloitte, the Public Health Foundation of India and the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Haryana, highlights the importance of collective digital and human interventions.

The playbook builds upon the learnings gained from Niti Aayog, ‘Sanjeevani Pariyojana’, a supervised, virtual home care initiative launched in Karnal, Haryana, India in May 2021 as well as Deloitte’s experience in South Africa.

During the peak of the second wave, the Government of Haryana and Deloitte initiative had helped the people of Karnal have quick access to healthcare at home, effectively bringing the fatality rate down by 50 per cent.

Over 90 percent of patients were treated at home or at isolation centres, which helped reduce the pressure on the district hospital, thereby preserving beds for the critically ill, Deloitte said.

After its success in India, the ‘Sanjeevani Pariyojana’ initiative was also adopted in South Africa and Southeast Asia. PTI