Coronavirus / Attend to COVID-19 patients within 1 hour: Delhi govt to hospitals in new rules

New Delhi: Amid massive surge in fresh coronavirus cases in the national capital, the Delhi government has issued new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to hospitals for treating COVID-19 patients.

As per the new rules, the hospital staff shall bring the patient to the triage area from the vehicle that the patient has been brought to the hospital, in 15 minutes, without asking for details. On being brought to the triage area and provided a bed or sitting space, the doctor on duty should attend to the patient within an hour. Further, the patient shall also be given refreshments and not made to stay in triage area for more than three hours.

The on-duty doctor, after consulting with specialists, if required, will decide one of the following actions:

Admission of the patient: For the treatment, the patient is to be admitted to an appropriate ward. He/she should be shifted from one bed to another depending upon facilities required by them.

Referring to another hospital: In case bed with level facilities is not available at the hospital, it shall be its responsibility to transfer the patient to another hospital and to provide medical assistance till the transfer is complete.

Transfer to COVID Care Centre (CCC): In case the patient doesn’t require any further treatment and is under the category for which home quarantine is required, but does not have space at home, he/she shall be transferred by the hospital to a COVID Care Centre.

Discharge for home quarantine: If the patient requires no further treatment and is under the category for which home quarantine is required, he/she shall be discharged after basic counselling.

Death: If a patient dies at the hospital at triage or brought dead, the body will be sent to mortuary after disinfection by the hospital.

If during stay at the hospital, the patient feels that he/she is not being treated as per protocol or if the admission is being denied or delayed without proper explanation or if there is any grievance, the patient can call on the hospital helpline number, with one line dedicated 24X7 for this purpose.

The patients shall be managed as per the protocol and COVID tests done as per the latest guidelines in this regard. Finally, he/she shall be discharged as per protocol, after testing negative for COVID-19 as per latest orders in this regard.

On Wednesday, Delhi recorded its biggest-ever single-day spike of 1,513, which took its overall coronavirus count to 23,645.