Professors packed off to quarantine at Hyderabad\'s Osmania Medical College
Hyderabad: Professors of Hyderabad's Osmania Medical College (OMC) have been ordered into quarantine after several post-graduate students and interns there tested positive for the coronavirus in the past week.
Thirty-five interns and junior doctors of OMC have so far tested positive for the virus, requiring their contacts to be quarantined. This includes several of the teaching staff, some of whom are above 60 years of age and have co-morbid conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.
However, further testing has been stopped at the medical college. Only those who report coronavirus symptoms will be tested.
With dozens of junior doctors and professors testing positive or referred to quarantine, teaching hospitals in Hyderabad will have to function with only 50 per cent of their staff. The shortage of doctors will be felt more acutely as people have been crowding out-patient departments of hospitals. There are 1,000 patients coming daily into the teaching hospitals from across the city and from the districts.
Osmania General Hospital, Niloufer Hospital, ENT Hospital, maternity hosptials at Sultan Bazaar and Petlaburj are now operating with only 50 per cent capacity in the out-patient departments. These hospitals have been told that only emergency surgeries will be carried out, no elective procedures will be started yet.
The decision not to test widely even in the face of the spread of the coronavirus to medical college campuses is being criticised. A senior doctor, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said more testing not less was essential.
Doctors are Osmania Medical College, one of the two premier public sector general hospitals in Hyderabad, are critical of the lack of attention being given to the infection spread at the hospital.
“The complete concentration of the government is only on Gandhi Hospital (the designated COVID-19 hospital in Hyderabad). It is believed that only Gandhi Hospital gets COVID-19 patients. But that is not the case. Asymptomatic carriers are all around,” the doctor said.
“Asymptomatic carriers can only be identified if there is proper screening carried out and regular testing in hospitals,” a senior doctor said.
Around 400 interns, 100 day scholars and more than 300 boarders come to or live on the OMC campus. First- and second-year students have been sent home. Junior doctors are demanding mass screening and regular testing to identify COVID-19 cases.
A junior doctor said, "If they test, 50 per cent of us will be positive with mild symptoms. But they are not doing so as they do not want to create panic. Will it help in controlling the spread of the virus? No."
Dr Shashikala Reddy, principal of Osmania Medical College, is satisfied with the current scenario: "All those who had symptoms have been tested. Those who came in contact with infected persons were identified and tested. Students have also volunteered for testing as they suspected infection and that too has been done. Most of our students are negative. We are now following the 50 per cent duty schedule where it will be work for one week and off for another week."
