Covid hosps to have QRTs to care for serious patients – Times of India

Kolkata: With the number of Covid-death tally rising, the state health department has come up with a strategy to identify serious Covid positive patients early for effective and timely intervention. According to officials, this decision was taken to arrest and reduce the mortality rate.
On Tuesday, an order from Swasthya Bhawan has directed all Covid hospitals in the state, to set-up a quick response team (QRT). The purpose is to give proper, effective and proactive intervention to critically ill patients the right time.
The QRTs will have an anaesthetist, a medical officer, post-graduate trainee doctor, a house staff and a nurse, who is trained in critical care.
“The primary task of the QRT will be to take care of a serious patient with all necessary support as soon as an attending doctor identifies him or her. The teams will be looking after only critical patients,” said a health department official.
With 11 more deaths on Tuesday, the Covid-19 death toll has climbed to 580. On the same day, Bengal had a discharge rate of 61%, managing an impressive recovery rate. Even as the discharge rate has gone up, what worries health expert is the alarming high mortality in the state. At 580 deaths, West Bengal only after comes after Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
“The high death rate is a matter of concern. We need to arrest this. Some hospitals like ID Hospital Beliaghata have been very proactive in identifying the serious patients on time and hence giving the right kind of care without any delay. We believe replicating this model in other Covid Hospitals will be a key to arresting the mortality rate,” said the official.
Of the total 580 deaths, 263 deaths have occurred in the past 20 days of June alone. Apart from three days this June, 23 days recorded deaths in double digits. This month has also seen single day highest death spike on two days when 17 deaths each were recorded on June 6 and 10. Kolkata has the highest death toll with 399 of the 580.
“We have just received the order. We will try to set up the team by Wednesday so that it becomes functional at the earliest,” said a source in Medical College Hospital Kolkata. The tertiary-level 500-bed Covid Hospital currently has approximately 260 patients.
Administrators of these Covid Hospitals said that they will need to have three sets of such ORT as the team is supposed to be functioning round the clock. Currently the state has 77 dedicated Covid hospitals, including private facilities acquired by the health department.