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COVID-19 and private sector hospitals and ICCS
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Dr. Lakith Pieris
Around 30-50 people with COVID-19 are detected in each medium to large private hospital per week currently, while all the intermediate care centres (ICCs) run by some of these hospitals are filled to capacity, said a high-level official in this sector on Thursday.
The President of the Association of Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes (APHNH) and Managing Director of Hemas Hospitals, Dr. Lakith Pieris told the Sunday Times that the ICCs run by some have a room-range from 50 to 150 rooms.
Multiply that by two as most of the rooms are doubles and that would give their capacities. Around 500-odd have been discharged from these private ICCs so far. Currently they are all full up. The ICCs are for asymptomatic (without symptoms) or mildly symptomatic COVID-19 positives, he said.
The APHNH has over 120 members across the country.
What happens if someone gets severe disease while at these ICCs?
Pointing out that most of these private hospitals have upgraded their ICU facilities within the ICCs, he said that they are capable of looking after these patients.
“We can put them on the ventilator, give them oxygen, everything can be done in an ICC. We have taken up the responsibility of making sure that the patients are kept safe,” he said.
| PHIs voice grave concern The COVID-19 situation is “very bad” and last week even though we asked for a “lockdown” at least for two-three days to lower the case numbers and take care of those who have been infected, the government did not heed our plea, said a senior public health official. The Secretary of the Public Health Inspectors’ Union (PHIs), M. Balasooriya warned that with the caseload being very high, they were facing immense challenges and difficulties in finding places for the infected in treatment centres. He urged that if the authorities are not ready to impose a lockdown, there should at least be travel restrictions, either inter-district or within districts. As there are no such restrictions, people are going about and taking the virus along with them. Those from the highly-infected Western Province are travelling to the north and central areas of the country. Instructions to perform RT-PCR testing or rapid antigen testing is not feasible. It cannot be done and it is not being done. “We are very concerned about the economy. But if we keep going like this, there will not be an economy to worry about as the situation will be overwhelming. Even though a lockdown is the most preferable as there is still time to turn this around and not end up like India, at least impose strict travel restrictions,” he said. “When we keep positive people at home in the rural areas, they are unable to isolate themselves because they do not have the luxury of separate toilets,” said Mr. Balasooriya, adding that another huge issue was RT-PCR test results being inordinately delayed. Some results come as long after as six days which poses a major issue of tracing the contacts of the infected. This leads to rapid spread. These delays also lead to the infected people not informing the PHIs that they are positive and continuing to remain at home leading to a further spread of the virus, he said, also pointing out that there is a dearth of PHIs and they are stretched to capacity.
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| Need to vaccinate balance 50% of private hospital staffPointing out that 50% of the private hospital staff are fully vaccinated with both doses, APHNH’s Dr. Lakith Pieris urged that the other 50% need to get their doses soon as they are also frontline health workers. He said that 50% got their second jab five days ago, but there is another 50% who are working at very high-risk. The government has already vaccinated the state public health sector and there is an urgent need to vaccinate the balance 50% in the private health sector. When asked whether there are moves for the private sector to get involved in importing the COVID-19 vaccines, Dr. Pieris said no permission has been granted yet. Baby and mother in ICC doing fine Citing a case where an expectant mother who had COVID-19 in a private ICC, Dr. Lakith Pieris said that she went into labour suddenly last week. “We had to deliver the baby. We immediately shifted the patient to the hospital and a beautiful baby was delivered. The mother went back to the ICC but because the baby was premature, only 33 weeks, we kept the baby in the neonatal unit,” he said. He added that private hospitals have taken up the responsibility of managing COVID-19 patients. “We also have a fallback plan in the event the government ICU beds are full.” |