Shortage of ambulances, testing kits impedes Covid steps at BBN

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan,November 27

The efforts to check the spread of Covid in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) industrial belt are proving to be futile due to a shortage of amenities such as RT-PCR kits and dedicated ambulances.

The large-scale movement of industrial workers has been mainly responsible for the spread of Covid here. The patients were isolated at the Centrally-run ESIC Hospital at Katha in Barotiwala, which has been declared as a dedicated Covid health centre. The state health officials have been working in coordination with the ESIC Hospital staff to handle the pandemic — the hospital has 50 beds for Covid patients and 40 doctors, both regular and contractual. Out of the total 4,689 Covid cases that were detected in Solan district till Thursday, 2,451 were in the BBN industrial belt.

“A majority of the fatalities here comprise patients who suffered from co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiac problems. Serious patients are referred to a higher medical care institute but the PGIMER, Chandigarh, does not take referral cases from Himachal,” said a doctor.

“Patients can either be referred to the IGMC, Shimla, or MMU medical college, Sultanpur, as there is no other option. This causes a delay of several hours in making available specialsed treatment to serious patients. Though efforts have been made to seek special referral permission for the PGIMER, Chandigarh, it is yet to be received,” added the doctor.

“The health and 108 ambulance staff have an effective communication network through WhatsApp and other modes and despite many odds, around 2,000 cases have been handled successfully in the BBN area with logistic support from the administration,” said Dr Gagan Rajhans, Nodal Covid Officer for the BBN area.

The shortage of ambulances is also a major impediment in speedily confining Covid patients to isolation. The state health authorities have earmarked only one ambulance for Covid patients at the Katha hospital while at least two more fully-equipped ambulances should be available, said an official. He added that at times more than one patient had to be transported to a higher medical institute but the shortage of ambulances created hurdles, more so when the patient required oxygen.

Aggressive sample taking was undertaken by the health staff during the first wave of the pandemic, which ended in September, but the lack of RT-PCR kits has now forced doctors to undertake rapid antigen testing (RAT). Doctors fear that if adequate RT-PCR kits are not made available soon, the second wave of the pandemic will become difficult to handle. Ever since the Central Government directed the state government to bear the cost of testing, there has been a shortage of RT-PCR kits. Doctors are resorting to RAT in the absence of sufficient RT-PCR kits.

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