Bhubaneswar: Health care services were hit in the capital after several doctors and medical staff were infected with Covid.
Capital Hospital has been forced to close the department of outdoor patients (OPD) during the second half because of lack of staff with similar problems faced by others such as BMC hospitals in the old city and urban primary health care centers (UPHC) in the city.
“Of the 100 frontline staff of our hospital down with Covid and in isolation, forcing us to run a hospital with a small number of staff.
It ultimately affects the service and forces us to close the OPD service in the afternoon.
Previously, where we used to have Two doctors on one OPD, we now manage with one, “said Dr.
Laxmidhar Sahoo, Director of the Capital Hospital.
Opd in the morning remains open from 8am to 1pm, the time increases one hour.
Sources said of 144 doctors at the hospital, 40 had been infected by viruses in addition to 30 nurses, 40 laboratory technicians and more than 15.
Pharmacists.
“Even though there is a lack of staff because of a covid surge, we haven’t stopped emergency services and still attending nearly 3,000 OPD patients.
We have delayed some elective operations to reduce the burden,” Sahoo said.
Authorities at other hospitals said they were also burdened because of the staff crisis.
“Some of our staff have been tested positively and we asked them to remain in isolation.
But health services have not been much affected because the patient’s flow has diminished when people become careful after increasing Covid cases,” said Dr.
JK Bebarta, Head of the BMC Hospital Hospital , the old city test positive covid.
I have to wait until he recovers.
“