Our suggestions not considered, lament public health experts

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 30

Public health experts in Kashmir feel the government has trashed their opinions on the fight against Covid-19, as the number of infected persons is likely to shoot-up this week.

They say Government has “bulldozed all their suggestions” on the protocol for screening, quarantine, isolation, and infrastructure building to streamline the combat against the coronavirus.

With Kashmir seeing a spike in CoVID-19 cases, they said Government was unmoved with the impending crisis due to community spread of the virus.

“We discussed all the measures needed to be taken with Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh but no final decision was made even though he seemed convinced easily,” said a health officer on condition of anonymity.

“No one among the higher-ups seems to review their wrong decision. In medicine, we review patient treatment every day but in administration, it seems that the word of the senior is the law. They leave no scope for review,” he said.

Experts had taken up with Government multiple times that SKIMS, Soura should be reserved exclusively for severely sick patients who need ventilators while as moderately sick patients should be admitted to associated hospitals of Government Medical Colleges in Srinagar and other districts.

Even the government was advised to identify nursing homes in all districts to quarantine high-risk persons and also keep some of them for antenatal care.

“No mixing of roles and responsibilities. Isolation and quarantine should be the exclusive domain of health department under technical expertise of community medicine department of GMC Srinagar, and logistically supported by the district administration,” said an expert quoting his suggestion to the government.

The number of coronavirus inflicted persons reached 45 in J&K today, including three cured and two deaths. Hundreds of people have been put under quarantine.

“We are likely to witness a rise in the number of patients this week because more and more people with contact with CoVID-19 positive cases have come forward for testing,” he said.

Head of the department Community Medicine department of GMC Srinagar professor Muhammad Salim Khan has also suggested Government that Covid-19 contacts shall be put under surveillance and brought to the Covid Isolation Centre at the district hospital or sub-district hospital for testing.

“After sample collection, they should be sent back home immediately for home quarantine and actively followed by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) for any symptoms demanding admission to Covid Isolation Centre at district or sub-district hospital level. The test reports shall be later delivered to them,” he suggested.

Experts said the government has messed up the whole process of fight against coronavirus by making SKIMS, a premier healthcare institution of Kashmir, a CoVID-19 quarantine centre.

“SKIMS should have no role in isolation and quarantine. Most of the wards at SKIMS are currently being utilised for quarantining, creating the mess we are in,” they said.

They said the definition of CoVID-19 case should be more sensitive and dynamic. “There is need of relook every day which will lead to more testing and hence more testing facilities, particularly in private to be explored,” they said.

Even Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India K. Vijay Raghavan tweeted: “There are two requirements for success. The first is a shared sense of purpose with our people, all humanity, particularly the poor and vulnerable. The second is the ability to take well-thought-out steps. Both are needed to pushback the disease. Our scientists have both.”

However, that confidence in public health experts seems missing in Jammu and Kashmir.

Most of the public health experts and health officials blame Chief Secretary BVR Subramanayam for not considering their opinions and advice on CoVID-19.

“Possibly Chief Secretary has dictated the guidelines and everyone down the line is following them. No one has the courage to question his decisions. Without the involvement of technical experts, we are bound to fail in this fight. It seems he has his guidelines and doesn’t listen to anyone else,” an official privy to the meetings on CoVID-19 said.

Many Kashmiri health experts working in West are suggesting the government should utilize resources judiciously before going into crisis mode.

“Every winter we have thousands in Kashmir who have moderate to severe respiratory illness owing to different kinds of viral infections; only the names are different. Our system takes care of them, limiting mortality and morbidity significantly without chaos and confusion,” they said.

“We have set ourselves in crisis mode before the actual crisis. Let us first utilize, what we have, judiciously without mixing roles and responsibilities. Every organization’s role is what they do best in the usual mode,” they said.

The Tribune tried to reach to Chief Secretary BVR Subamanayam for comments but he was not available.

Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu dismissed the trashing of opinions of public health experts as rumours. “Experts should come out and talk to me directly. If they give something in writing, we will consider,” Murmu said.

He said anybody concealing the travel history would be forced into quarantine. “We will force them into quarantine. They are taking us liberally and talking non-sense. If they don’t obey, we will let them obey,” he said.