Health Ministry issues guidelines for home-based care of COVID patients

The Health Ministry this evening released a list of guidelines regarding home-based care for asymptomatic and midly symptomatic COVID-19 patients. 

The guidelines will apply to patients aged over 2 years and below 65 years who do not have any underlying health conditions and are either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. They will be directed to home-based care under the supervision of medical officers. The Director General of Health Services has taken steps to forward the guidelines to all provincial and regional directors of health services and heads of other health departments, the Health Ministry said in a media release. 

The Patient Home Isolation and Management System (PHIMS) will operate through a 24-hour dedicated call centre set up under the hotline number 1390. The ministry said this will enable the patients to obtain treatment under the call centre and medical care team easily over a 14-day period. 

If the condition of a patient worsens, steps will be taken to obtain details of those patients over the phone and speedily direct them to a hospital. 

The ministry said this method will minimise the problems that arise when patients are admitted to hospital needlessly, resulting in hospital wards exceeding their capacity. 

Once an individual is identified as a COVID patient following a PCR or Rapid Antigen test, steps will be taken to direct them either to a hospital or home-based care as per guidelines issued to the area Medical Officer of Health (MOH). The patient must give his or her consent to go into home-based care. The guidelines detail how such patients should be managed.

Registration of the patients will be done online. A team of doctors including consultants who are at the call centre will be responsible for supervising the care of home-based patients. 

Steps have also been taken to monitor the health of the patients via the area MOH office even after he or she is discharged after a 14-day period, the ministry also said.