Dr Mahesh Maskey’s advice to govt: Convert private hospitals into COVID-19 hospitals

KATHMANDU, May 1: Public health expert Dr Mahesh Kumar Maskey has suggested the government to convert as many as medical colleges and private hospitals into COVID-19 designated hospitals to contain the further spread of the novel coronavirus disease in the country. 

Talking to Ratopati, Dr Maskey also added that operating COVID units in private hospitals alone is not enough to tacke the pandemic. “Government is preparing to run corona units in the private hospitals, which will not address the situation either. Therefore, private hospitals and medical colleges should be converted into COVID hospitals at the earliest,” he added. 

 At a time when the health ministry is saying that it can not provide beds to corona patients any longer amid the massive surge in new infections, Dr Maskey has furnished five different tips to the government so that the second wave of the virus triggered by the new variant can be controlled. 
 

Five suggestions of public health expert maskey to combat second wave of coronavirus: 

1. Turn as many medical colleges and private hospitals into COVID-19 dedicated hospitals  temporarily for two months, so that enough beds are available with oxygen support at this critical period.

The reason why people become serious and need ICU is because of delay in getting admission, oxygen and simple medicine like dexamethasone.

2. Equip the ward leadership with transportation and access to corona beds so that each ward can take care of patients needing hospitalization

3. Home isolation and institutional isolation be established and supervised with the help of health professionals and phone calls in each ward.

4. All people entering Nepal be quarantined for 14 days and tested when symptoms appear. 

5. Testing and contact tracing be done with new vigour particularly to rule out UK and Indian variants.