Fearing 3rd wave, Punjab Govt begins training paediatricians

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, September 17

In view of children and newborns being at risk in the possible third wave as they are yet to be inoculated, the state Health Department, with the help of a US agency, has started special training for doctors, particularly paediatricians, in all districts.

They are being trained in “Acute care and emergency response in management of Covid-19 for paediatric patients”. US Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing technical support while Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, is the state-level hub to impart this training to the doctors of all districts over the next one week.

Starting Friday, the medical college will conduct a total of four training chapters to cover all districts. On Friday, the training started in six districts — Barnala, Fazilka, Mansa, Mohali, Sangrur and SBS Nagar. Besides paediatricians, anaesthetists, pulmonologists, medical officers and staff nurses will be imparted the training.

“There will be seven participants from each district, who will have the opportunity to get hands-on experience on ventilators, BiPAPs, CPAPs and non-invasive ventilation (NIV),” said Dr Raj Bahadur, Vice Chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) here.

With the technical support from the USAID-RISE (Reaching Impact Saturation and Epidemic Control), the Health Department was leveraging the expertise of the state-level faculty to build the capacity of specialists, medical doctors, and staff nurses from all districts, the VC added.

“The immediate output of this training series will be to build the capacity of the health workforce in the management of Covid-19 paediatric emergencies and ensure the optimum utilisation of available machines within the government system. Moreover, there will be specific sessions on mental health by the Department Of Psychiatry and Physiotherapy.” he added.