BHOPAL: The decision to go into home isolation still seems to be at the whims of patients as there is a lack of monitoring of patients on the part of the health department. The health department has issued clear guidelines on the criteria for home isolation, but the point to ponder is how that will be decided.
However, a healthcare professional said that home isolation is not advisable on the mere whims of patients. It is advised at government hospitals according to their condition. But, if people go to private hospitals for testing, they immediately advise them to get admitted as it is directly related to their business and they do not want to miss out on any opportunity to mint money.
People go to private hospitals for testing and, if they are detected to be Covid-positive, they straightaway prefer to go into home isolation unless their condition is deemed to be critical. There is no monitoring to segregate asymptotic and mild symptomatic patients from other critical-condition patients. Asymptomatic and mild symptomatic patients are meant to go into home isolation. Similarly, people of below 60 years of age and stable cases of diabetes irrespective of age are considered for home isolation.
‘The difference is clear’
"If people go to a government hospital for corona testing, government doctors will take a decision after assessing their condition. But private hospitals advise immediate hospitalisation if anyone is detected Covid-positive. Private hospitals don’t give a second chance to patients to decide on home isolation as the cases are directly linked to the business of private hospitals," said Dr ID Chaurasia, medical superintendent, Hamidia Hospital.
