Active emergency services in TU Teaching Hospital

A total of 130 COVID-19 patients are being treated at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj today. The teaching hospital has 138 beds for COVID-related treatment. At the present, there are nine COVID-19 infected patients in the ICU and two more are being placed in ventilators.

Doctors and health workers working at the hospital are treating patients even when they themselves are infected. More than 250 infections have been found in employees of the hospital so far.

According to Dr. Ramesh Kumar Maharjan, head of the emergency department of the hospital, 11 out of 40 doctors working in the emergency department have become infected. Similarly, 15 out of 41 nurses and 5 out of 17 attendants have tested positive. Currently, no security guard working in the emergency ward has been infected.

Although doctors and health workers suffered a lot during the first and second variants of COVID-19, now the health workers have adequate knowledge of the third variant and no one has to be admitted to the hospital, said Dr. Maharjan.

The most critically ill are brought to the emergency room of the teaching hospital. In case of COVID's illness, arrangements have been made for the critically ill in the building in front of Ganeshman Bhawan which is in the hands of the Teaching Hospital. But even if the general disease is treated in the emergency room, the patients who go there for treatment are sent for PCR check. Similarly, 57 patients who came for treatment for other diseases got positive results in one week, said Dr. Maharjan. Among the patients who came to the emergency room, the PCR tests of the chronic patients were found to be mostly positive. For example, those with kidney failure and pneumonia are more likely to be positive.

Thus, despite other diseases, the number of patients who come with the symptoms of COVID is about 7 on a daily basis.

Since Dr. Ramesh Kumar Maharjan took over the leadership of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, some changes have been made for patients being admitted to the hospital. Physicians, nurses, and security guards have started receiving and transferring the patients who arrive in ambulances or their own vehicles. Immediately after that, emphasis is placed on finding out their disease. The most critical patients are given the highest priority. The helipad at the hospital has also been set up.

Arrangements have been made to bring patients in a helicopter to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible.

Dr. Maharjan says that it is important to understand the difference between seasonal flu and COVID-19 in winter when there is more pressure on the hospital. Cold, runny nose and fever are also common. At that time, the temperature can rise to 102 degrees. In that case, it is important to understand that it is just common cold. However, if someone has a sore throat, itchiness, body ache, nasal congestion but the fever does not reach 102 degrees at the time, it is considered a symptom of Omicron.