G.Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital (GKNMH) has been one of the first hospitals in Coimbatore to be announced as a designated covid Care hospitals when the first wave of novel coronavirus infection began in 2020.
Known to be an hospital that has earned people’s trust, and a hospital that shows it cares by excellent results; GKNMH has treated over 2500 patients during second wave of covid-19. Now as the covid-19 cases in the district and at GKNMH is decreasing, the hospital’s management has expressed its gratitude to everyone who has been instrumental in turning the situation to a positive one.
Your dedication & commitment deserves an ovation! – Dr.Ragupathy Veluswamy, CEO, GKNM Hospital
This corona virus pandemic made me think of healthcare issues we faced in the past, for instance from 1800s to 1980 we went through several epidemics and pandemics like plague, cholera, typhoid, polio, influenza etc. At that time the main focus was to prevent death. From 1940 onwards, the focus of healthcare switched to managing physiological alterations of the human body. Now we are facing this covid-19 pandemic.
I can say it is a rude awakening for all of us. It highlighted the social purpose of healthcare. The Social purpose of healthcare has two components – identifying the disease, developing treatment modalities to best address the complications of the disease, at the same time paying attention to what people want, which is ‘Preventing Death’. I call this combination as Social purpose of Healthcare.
Admirable thing during this pandemic is that medical and non-medical organizations joined together along with Government agencies to fight covid, managing it & in most cases preventing death. I can say that team at GKNMH did pretty good job. Right now the number of covid patients admitted in the hospital is getting steadily decreasing, and it is a good sign. For this the credit goes to all our doctors, nurses, paramedical team, housekeeping, dietician, security personnel; all of us worked together, risking our own lives in taking care of the comfort and well-being of the covid patients.
On behalf of GKNM Hospital Staff and Management, I acknowledge the dedication & hard work done by our frontline team, and I profoundly thank them for their dedication and commitment in taking care of sick patients. Even though we, are not at the finish line, still we have made tremendous progress, and I am hopeful and sure that our team will continue to do what they can to do to prevent the complications of covid, managing and treating it.
My heartfelt congratulations and thank all staff members for their team work and the incredible job they did during this pandemic. and it is my pleasure to thank all of them.
Early preparation proved to be a life-saver! – Dr.R. Bala Vinoth, Consultant Infectious Disease, GKNM Hospital
Right from the time when the first covid case in the country was identified in Kerala, we started our preparation. When the official announcement from WHO on covid-19 came out as a pandemic, we formed a task force. It was a five-member team that includes our CEO, Chief Medial Officer, Resident Medical Officer, ICU Chief and myself.
Identify, Confirm, Treat:
Even before we got positive cases in Coimbatore, we kept wards ready for possible patients. We established protocols that at the triage level itself; those who have symptoms fitting in with Covid-19 were examined by our well-prepared and protected doctors. People who fit in to that symptomatology criteria for covid-19 were put through a different path way and through an allocated area in the emergency region which is called a Flu Clinic. There patients were stabilized, an RT-PCR test was done on them and they were given appropriate treatment, and they were asked to come back with the report. People who had severe illness were admitted in the screening ward until their result came. If their results came as positive, they were then admitted to covid wards. If it was negative, their symptoms were analyzed thoroughly, and only after that they were put in the non-covid pool, to avoid cross-transmission of infection.
Adherence to guidelines helped much:
We totally adhered to the guidelines issued by credible international societies including WHO, CDL and our country’s MOHFW. We took initiatives to familiarize our medical personnel with PPEs. We gave awareness about this disease, the precautions needed and alleviated the panic among them.
More than 2000 patients have been treated in this second wave alone. 70% of beds were allocated for covid treatment. 80-90% of the patients who received treatment from us had very good recovery rate.
This Second wave was quite a challenge, because the virus behaved differently, it was a double-mutant virus and it was more virulent and transmissible. Lots of healthcare professional got infected, and we had our own challenges. In spite of that we held on to the guidelines, and we were able to get back 80-90% of the patients to a normal state.
Emergencies handled promptly:
We had a protocol on flow for every aspects. Whomsoever needed emergency interventional procedures in the hospital, covid testing was done on them but they were not kept waiting. They were immediately taken to a designated covid operation theatre (or) Covid Labour theatre (or) Covid cathlab, and procedures were done with due precautions. There was no compromise on providing emergency care to such patients sending the reports.. Measures were taken to provide quality care to all.
Our team worked with utmost dedication and care that if we found even an inch of setback in patients’ status, they were transferred to high dependency wards, and intensive care unit and appropriate escalation in treatment was done.
It was a team work:
Team work was the main reason for our success. It involved coordinated efforts of our administration, ICU team, general medicine team, pulmonologists, post graduates doctors, nurses, physician assistants, public relations, House keeping team, dietician, kitchen staff, and insurance team. They all worked hard throughout their schedule. Nurses were our pillar of strength in managing this health crisis.
What’s ahead for public? :
Till we get further advisory from Govt and entire population is vaccinated to get sufficient herd immunity, we all need to stick on to the covid guidelines.
Whenever a person gets his turn, he/she should be vaccinated. The impact of virus is mild on people who have had two doses and crossed two weeks after their vaccination. We should aim at 100% vaccination in our country as early as possible to tide over this pandemic in the near future.