Over 1,000 beds available at private facilities in and around Chennai

Over 1,000 beds available at private facilities in and around Chennai

98 ventilators are yet to be used in the 21 private hospitals

08/06/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, CHENNAI

As of Sunday, Chennai had 1,065 vacant beds in the 21 private hospitals that offer treatment for COVID-19. As many as 98 ventilators in these hospitals were yet to be used, according to statistics provided on the State government’s website https://covid.uhcitp.in/stat- us/dashboard

Though the government had launched a separate dashboard, detailing the number of beds, vacancies in beds and the number of ventilators put to use, it is limited to the city. The corresponding details for the districts have not been provided yet.

On Saturday, actor Kasthuri Shankar took to social media to complain that an elderly woman had struggled to find an affordable facility for treatment of COVID-19. She said the woman, belonging to an influential family in Chennai, had tested positive at a private hospital in Abiramapuram. She was “highly symptomatic”, and “no hospital was willing to admit her, no beds available was the reply at government facilities. They had to pull strings to finally get into a hospital in Porur”, the actor tweeted.

Her tweet appeared on the same day that the government issued an order capping the treatment cost at private hospitals across the State.

Speaking about the government notification, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said, “There were complaints that an artificial shortage of beds was being created by hospitals.” On Sunday, the number of active cases in the city stood at 10,982.

As for the districts, she said the case load was low, and there had been no issues with regard to availability of beds. The portal would provide the details for districts as well ‘shortly’, she said.

Treatment for COVID-19 is provided free of cost at government hospitals. For nearly three weeks now, government hospitals have been struggling as the case load in Chennai has been steadily increasing.

VIT teams qualify for hackathon

VIT teams qualify for hackathon

08/06/2020, STAFF REPORTER, VELLORE

Nasscom FutureSkills in collaboration with IBM organised a national-level hackathon, which was open to all university students and their mentoring faculty members with an objective to find innovative solutions to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

Students from over 500 institutions across India with 26,478 registrations participated. Of the top 16 short-listed teams for the final presentation and evaluation, five from VIT found their way in the list representing all the four campuses.

Is there a delay in accounting for coronavirus deaths in Tamil Nadu?

Is there a delay in accounting for coronavirus deaths in Tamil Nadu?

In the past few weeks, some deaths have not figured in the bulletin, analyses Express

Published: 08th June 2020 03:17 AM | Last Updated: 08th June 2020 03:17 AM | 

Health workers busy taking nosal swab samples from a woman or COVID-19 test at a Public Health Laboratory and Health Care Center at Egmore in Chennai. (Photo | Debadatta Mallick/EPS)

By OMJASVIN M DExpress News Service

CHENNAI: The State has so far been publishing daily health bulletins with the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths. However, in the past few weeks, some deaths caused due to the virus have not yet appeared in the bulletin. Express came across four such cases - three from Chennai and one from Madurai - that were not mentioned in the bulletin.

According to the death certificate accessed by Express, a 41-year-old man from Old Washermenpet passed away on June 3 at a private hospital near Kattankulathur. The deceased bank-employee, who did not have comorbidity too, had Covid-19 and died of viral pneumonitis. His family members said the patient was admitted to the Stanley Medical College Hospital on May 25 and later shifted to a private hospital on May 28. “The burial also took place on June 3 evening itself. The body was directly sent by the hospital to the burial ground and we witnessed the proceedings from a faraway distance,’’ said the deceased’s elder brother.

In a similar incident, a 76-year-old patient from Ambattur, admitted at the KMCH, passed away on May 26 due to Covid-19, according to the medical report issued by the hospital. His family members said he was admitted at KMCH on May 18 and after four days, his fever only got worse and he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit. He died on May 26. However, even though it has been 10 days, his death case has not appeared in the bulletin.

In Madurai, a 72-year-old woman, a resident of Tamil Nadu Housing Board in Anuppanadi, Madurai, with fever and shortness of breath, was tested positive on June 4 at a private hospital. Sources close to the family said she was referred to the Government Rajaji Hospital at 5.50 pm. Hospital authorities confirmed she died the same day at 10:35pm due to respiratory failure and sepsis. However, this case too has not been mentioned yet.

Similarly, a 63-year-old man from Chennai who had gone to Koodankulam in Tirunelveli district on May 23 for his son’s marriage, fainted during the marriage the next day, hospital sources said. He was taken to a nearby hospital and was declared dead.

Koodankulam police brought the body as a medico-legal case (MLC) to Kanyakumari government medical college hospital on May 24. As the body was brought in as MLC, a throat sample was taken and the deceased tested positive. The body was cremated in Nagercoil on Monday but this death has not been mentioned in the bulletin yet. When contacted, officials of the death audit team said, “There may be a delay but we have not missed any deaths. We will review these cases,’’ the official said.

Director of Public Health Dr TS Selvavinayagam said that he will look into the issue. Details of this has been shared to him.

Official reply

When contacted, officials of the death audit team said, “There may be a delay but we have not missed any deaths. We will review these cases” Director of public health said he will look into the issue

(Inputs:Lalitha Ranjani @Madurai, M Abdul Rabi @Nagercoil).

High-risk surgery performed on woman at Thoothukudi GMCH

High-risk surgery performed on woman at Thoothukudi GMCH

08/06/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, THOOTHUKUDI

A team of surgeons and anesthetists at the Thoothukudi Government Medical College Hospital successfully saved the life of a 19-year-old pregnant woman from death and helped her deliver the baby by performing a cesarean section on Saturday.

Doctors at the Medical College Hospital here said that Kaliammal of Oddapidaram had met with a road accident, while she was on a two-wheeler as a pillion rider. She was not wearing helmet.

In a critical condition, she was admitted to the hospital. For about an hour or so, the patient was consciously speaking, but suddenly her condition deteriorated. A CT Scan on her brain indicated that there was a ‘severe’ internal bleeding.

Immediately, a team of surgeons performed the surgery knowing well about the high risk involved and removed the clot weighing about 200 grams.

Even as they were performing the surgery, the baby on her appeared to be critical.

Swiftly, the gynaecologist and her team performed a cesarean section and delivered the baby.

The mother and baby have been responding well and were stable, the doctors said on Sunday. The swift work by the duty doctors, surgeons and para--medical team saved the two lives was commended by Health Minister C. Vijayabhaskar. In a tweet, the Minister said, “The pregnant woman was admitted in a very critical condition .. An emergency craniotomy and caesarean by Dr. Raja Vignesh, neurosurgeon, gynecologist, and obstetricians past midnight show their commitment.”

Hospital ties man to bed for not paying bills

Hospital ties man to bed for not paying bills

08/06/2020

“We told the hospital we can’t pay any further and asked them to remove the catheter so that we can take him home,” she said.

In order to secure his discharge, and get the case file, she was told another ₹11,270 would have to be paid. “They didn’t give us the file, so when we started leaving the hospital, and father was coming behind me, they grabbed him, took him inside and strapped him to the bed,” she said.

Describing the act “inhuman” and “barbaric”, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath tweeted, “During this corona pandemic, inhuman behaviour, fleecing and arbitrariness is continuing in several private hospitals of the State. There is no one to listen to the public. The government should take strict action over the incident.”

25 women apply for V-C post at Madras University

25 women apply for V-C post at Madras University

177 applications for the top job

08/06/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, CHENNAI

The list of aspirants to the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras has as many as 177 persons, including around 25 women and professors from within the university.

Among the applicants is Kalyani Mathivanan, whose tenure at the Madurai Kamaraj University ended with allegations of arbitrarily removing some professors from the post of head of department.

The prestigious 163-year-old university has been in serious financial trouble in the last decade.

Mismanagement of funds has landed the university in financial crisis in the past decade.

P. Duraisamy, who completed his tenure on May 26 as Vice-Chancellor, managed to bring some amount of order in the financial structure.

“I am surprised to see that a substantial number of women have applied. Madras University has never had a lady as a V-C till now. It would be a welcome change,” said P. T. Srinivasan, former Syndicate Member and head of the Department of Management Studies.

Patients wait for Remdesivir as DCGI yet to give clearance

Patients wait for Remdesivir as DCGI yet to give clearance

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:08.06.2020

Despite rapidly rising Covid-19 deaths and an approval to use Remdesivir for treatment of severe cases, Indian patients are still waiting for the drug to be available in the country as companies are awaiting marketing approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

“It might take some time before the drug (Remdesivir) is available in the Indian market. The regulator has asked companies to submit various sets of data, including stability study, animal toxicity etc. Even if these trials are conducted on a fast-track basis, they will take at least a month’s time,” an official said.

Five Indian pharma companies have applied to the DCGI seeking permission to manufacture and sell Remdesivir — an experimental drug that has shown promise in treating Covid-19 patients — in India.

Companies have signed an agreement with Gilead to make drug in 127 countries

These companies have signed a licensing agreement with US drug maker Gilead Sciences to manufacture and distribute the drug in around 127 countries. Gilead is the original developer of the re-purposed ebola drug.

While the drug regulator has granted approval to Gilead to import and sell the medicine in India, it was primarily with a purpose to support the licencees or Indian firms with whom Gilead signed non-exclusive agreements to further expand supply of Remdesivir, sources said.

However, despite local companies citing Gilead’s data as the reference point, the DCGI has recently written to the five Indian companies to submit data from animal toxicity studies, stability studies and test licences.

“We have asked the companies for this data to ensure quality of these products. Only clinical trials can be waived off based on Gilead’s data,” a senior official in the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) said.

When asked how Maharashtra government was procuring 10,000 vials of Remdesivir from Bangladesh, the official said, “We have given permission to only Gilead. Everything else is now from the grey market and unapproved.” Sources said the matter was taken up in a high-level meeting in the government on Sunday.

Local manufacturers said they had everything in place, starting from raw material to capacity, and were only waiting for regulatory approval to start manufacturing the drug. “We are completely backward integrated and can manufacture everything locally, starting from API to finished formulation for Remdesivir. However, the studies can take up to six months’ time and delay launch of the product,” a senior pharma executive said.