Show us certificate confirming Omicron infection, patients tell private hospitals

 Show us certificate confirming Omicron infection, patients tell private hospitals

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Sunitha.Rao@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:

02.02.2022

Those who tested positive for Omicron in the state face a peculiar problem: They haven’t been given any official document stating they have been infected with the new variant.

As many as 66 cases (42 still in hospitals, 24 discharged) have been reported in the state since December 2. Lack of documentation has caused friction between patients and the hospitals where they are being treated. At present, district authorities inform the hospitals through phone calls.

“Private hospitals do not receive a copy of the reports. BBMP informs us through phone calls and we communicate the same to the patients. All those have been are detected with the variant now are international travellers who demand reports, which we don’t have,” said the authorities of a private hospital. That’s one of the six private hospitals designated for admitting international passengers testing positive for Covid on arrival. The hospital has also taken up the matter with the Covid Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

Another hospital has been counselling patients as and when they get information from BBMP about genomic sequencing detecting the Omicron variant.

Most of them have come to Bengaluru for a purpose, either personal or professional.

“They are already in a state of ‘why me’ during admission and they suspect the RTPCR positive report itself. They wait for a minimum 5-6 days to know the genomic sequencing reports. When it turns out to be the variant of concern, they feel a sense of anxiety and denial owing to stigma and isolation. We need to tackle this with scientific evidence like genomic sequencing reports shown to them,” said the head of a hospital in west Bengaluru.

In another case, a young woman tested positive for Covid on arrival and got admitted to a private hospital in the third week of December. The hospital authorities said her father was upset with the new regulations for international travellers which pushed her for institutional isolation despite having no symptoms. “The father kept calling demanding her discharge from hospital, and would yell at us. But suddenly he went silent after the 6th day. We checked with the family and learnt they had received a call from BBMP stating that the woman was infected with the new variant. But we don’t get the same information from the Palike at all,” they added.

“Omicron detection through genomic sequencing does not come in the form of an RTPCR certificate. But the state surveillance wing gets the report which has details of the patients,” said BBMP officials, admitting that there has been a communication gap.

A TAC member said it’s a tricky situation where patients older than 18 years must be explained about why they are in hospital and the family also has to be communicated. “Having proper communication channels along with maintaining patient’s confidentiality is the need of the hour. We suggested to the government to have one dedicated officer for communicating between the labs, hospitals and patients,” said the member.