Delhi government-run hospitals turn COVID-19 hotspots; 76 medical staff test positive, 60 under quarantine

At least 21 medical staff who work at Lok Nayak Hospital—a dedicated government-run facility for Coronavirus in Delhi—have tested positive for COVID-19. This includes ten nurses, four doctors, a dietitian, three nursing orderlies, and three blood bank technicians. This is the second hospital where a cluster of medical workers have gotten infected. Two days earlier, at least 40 medical workers at the Delhi Government-run Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar (BSA) Hospital, in West Delhi’s Rohini area, tested positive for Coronavirus.

Three health workers tested positive at Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital in Delhi’s Dilshad Garden area, while at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital at Hari Nagar, four health workers. At Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, eight health workers tested positive for Coronavirus.

At the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, an autonomous institute under the Delhi government in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area, 40 health workers (seven doctors, 21 nursing staff and 12 supporting staff), have been quarantined after they were exposed to two COVID-19 patients.

Currently, 20 medical staffers of the GTB Hospital in Delhi’s Shahdara area have been quarantined. Earlier, 120 medical staff were under quarantine, but they have returned to work.

On May 1, three LN Hospital staff nurses tested positive. One of them had just finished his 14-day COVID-19 duty and the second nurse was on duty at the Intensive Care Unit. The third is a senior nursing officer. This has alarmed the other nurses who were staying at the hotel and had been in constant touch with him. By Friday evening, authorities fumigated the hotel premises.

All the LN Hospital medical staff who tested positive have been admitted at the Special Block on the premises. This includes at least five nursing officers who are under isolation as they had come in contact with an ICU doctor who tested positive. Two children of one of the nurses, who tested positive, have also been admitted here.

“I think you have got the numbers wrong. Only four nurses, four doctors and six supporting staff have tested positive,” insisted Dr JC Passey, Medical Director of LN Hospital. When NH insisted that we had names and proof of all those who tested positive, Dr Passey said he would have to check the numbers again.

In addition to LN Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital at Hari Nagar and Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital (RGSSH) have been admitting COVID-19 patients. Initially, GB Pant Hospital, BSA Hospital, and GTB Hospital were on the list too but were later removed. Now, patients who turn COVID-19 positive at GTB Hospital are referred to RGSSH, while those who test positive at BSA Hospital are sent to LN Hospital.

The situation at BSA Hospital is worrying the staff members. “The hospital has not allocated any hotel rooms or quarantine facilities for staff members who have tested positive. This morning a nurse tested positive and the person has not been allocated accommodation yet. When each staff member tests positive, we have to approach the Medical Director for accommodation. As a number of the medical staff across departments have tested positive, they must shut the hospital to sanitise it. All the staff members must be tested. Only those who test negative must be allowed to join once the hospital reopens,” said Pawan Sharma, BSA Nursing Union general secretary.

A month ago, a doctor at the Delhi State Cancer Institute had tested positive for Coronavirus. The hospital authorities had to shut the OPD to sanitise premises as most of their patients are immunocompromised.

A similar situation has erupted at GB Pant Hospital. A doctor from the gastro-medicine department tested positive for Coronavirus and he was continuously on duty in different wards, ICU and the OPD until he tested positive. This has resulted in three wards being sealed at the hospital.

“This has put several of his co-workers in danger of testing positive, but the hospital has not yet agreed to test any of those who came in contact with the doctor. We have been complaining about the lack of guidelines that need to be followed while admitting a Coronavirus patient. The hospital doesn’t want to prepare the standard operating procedures for such cases,” asserted LD Ramchandani, president of the Nurses Association of GB Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER).

The COVID-19 outbreaks at government-run hospitals are grave because this puts at risk the lives of patients and nurses, who are at the forefront for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple health workers across various Delhi-government run hospitals complained that proper guidelines were not being followed. Unlike several other states which have prepared standard operating procedures, there were none being followed in any of the Delhi-government run hospitals.

The staff at BSA Hospital have been complaining that they do not have any protocols in place either. “We have Personal Protection Equipment and N-95 masks. They have asked us to use only two N-95 masks for 15 days. The entry and exit for both patients and staffers are the same, so more people are likely to test positive,” said another nurse working at BSA Hospital. The person did not want to be identified.

The staff at LN Hospital reiterated that they have been warning the medical director about an outbreak for a while. They had prepared a staff management plan which was given to the medical director, but no action has been taken.

“All the protocols formulated by the government of India and the Delhi government are being followed at LN Hospital. All our health workers have been provided with PPE and masks. According to guidelines when a health worker wearing PPE comes in contact with a COVID-19 positive patient or health staff, they will continue to work until their test report comes,” said Dr Passey.

The health workers at LN Hospital have well-founded concerns. “The hospital has opened all the departments (Paediatrics, gynaecology, orthopaedics) and exposed nurses in all of them to COVID-19. Instead of sending all those who test positive to the Medicine ward, the hospital authorities sent them to various wards in accordance with their comorbidity,” said a nurse. “While this might seem ideal, the nurses in the medicine ward can attend to all these patients.” The nurse added, “This would have also restricted the COVID-19 exposure in the hospital. Now, nurses across departments are testing positive. Now, there will be fewer nurses.”

The Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s representative at LN Hospital, Ankush Narang said, “Out of the 11 buildings, we are operating with out of five. We are utilising 25% of the existing staff currently and another 25% have been sent to quarantine. We will be meeting the CM soon where we will propose to use 33% of the staff, the 33% will be in quarantine and the remaining will be in reserve. They will be called to action if any of the nurses test positive.”

Narang continued, “I have just been appointed. I have spoken to the nursing superintendent and have heard the issues. All of them will be sorted out.”

To reduce the stress on the health staff working on COVID-19 duty, the Delhi State Nurses’ Hospital Union had submitted a plan to the nursing superintendent and the medical director of LN Hospital. In it, they had requested that all the nurses be arranged into three groups—active, quarantine, and reserve. This was done so that every group would get to spend time with their family after a mandatory quarantine period. At LN Hospital, a health worker on is 14-day COVID-19 duty and then is sent to 14-day quarantine at another location. During these 28 days, they are not supposed to meet their family members.

As the positive cases continued to rise, the Delhi government released an order on May 1, 2020, blaming the health workers for contracting the virus. In a rather insensitive order, the health secretary Padmini Singla stated that “Many health workers in non-COVID Hospitals are either getting infected or reporting that they have come in contact with an infected person and the Medical Directors are indiscriminately sending them to quarantine to hotels or homes. This practice is causing an unnecessary shortage of staff at the hospitals.”

The order stated that this was happening because the hospitals and health workers were not following guidelines. The order adds that the medical directors have to obtain written explanation from all of them regarding how they got infected.

The Delhi government realised the folly of the order in two hours. It was withdrawn.

Several calls to Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain and Principal health Secretary Rajesh Prasad went unanswered. This article will be updated when they respond.

Recently, 11 nurses who work at Max Super Speciality Hospital in Patparanj tested positive for Coronavirus and 39 nurses from Max’s Saket Hospital, a dedicated COVID-19 facility, were quarantined after three medical staff tested positive for the virus. The administration at the hospital has been reportedly not following quarantine procedures.

According to the Delhi government’s health bulletin issued on May 1, 2020, there are 2,510 active positive cases in the capital. The bulletin stated that there were new 223 cases of which LN Hospital had 39 positive cases of COVID-19. The rise in cases among health workers comes amidst news that several have died due to COVID-19, including seven in April itself.