Mumbai: As the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) claims to have succeeded in containing the number of coronavirus cases, it will now prioritise on reducing Covid mortality in hospitals across Mumbai. In a bid to reduce the number of fatalities, the civic body on Tuesday launched another campaign against the pandemic – “Save Lives Strategy”.
During a meeting with senior officials and representatives of the civic health department, BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal issued special instructions to focus on various issues while treating the Covid victims that will help saving lives.
In order to control the mortality rate among Covid patients and to implement it more effectively, Chahal on Tuesday formed a BMC Team Action Program (Team BMC Strategy).
“We are getting more number of patients who either have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic. All they need is timely treatment, which we have achieved so far. Another good point is that the recovery rate is increasing as compared to the number of patients reported. Hence we have enough facilities for patients with severe symptoms or those who are critical,” said a senior BMC official.
Elaborating on SAVE LIVES STRATEGY, Chahal told the Free Press Journal that there will be a total accountability in every case in the moderate, severe and critical category. He said, “We have pointed out that a lot of deaths have occurred as patients with severe symptoms remove oxygen to go to the toilet, in the process they tend to strain and collapse, this is between 1 am to 5 am. To address this, we have proposed that every bed should have a bedpan and at least 4 beds should have a commode (also cardboard bins can be used). We will maintain a zero delay time ticker and video surveillance on every case will be done by the head of the unit and head of institution/ hospital."
He added, "Protocol and check boxes on every paper for adherence will be maintained to ensure nothing is missed. Furthermore, a detailed death audit of every death and video should be made of the same to be forensically audited."
The civic officials said that along with the supply of various effective medicines, the patients are also being treated using a method like plasma therapy.
Under the ‘Save Lives Strategy’ campaign, it will be mandatory for the senior doctors and juniors to keep in touch through video or telephone at least twice a day if they are handling a critical case of a person with severe Covid symptoms. All these critical patients will be the collective responsibility of doctors, nurses and concerned health workers BMC commissioner instructed the health department officials.
The commissioner also directed the officials that adequate stocks of drugs including antiviral, IL6, steroids, plasma should be ensured and used properly.
"Team BMC managed to contain the number of cases with the help of “Chase the virus” and “Chase the Patient” campaigns where we traced cases and managed to provide them timely treatments, which still continues. Simultaneously, we move onto the next level, where we will work on war footing to save lives and ensure patients with severe patients too recover,”added Chahal.
