COVID Hospitals In Odisha: Daily Information About Patients To Relatives Mandatory For Help Desk

Bhubaneswar: In view of the resurgence of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic across Odisha, the state government on Friday reiterated its direction to all government and private hospitals having facilities for treatment of the disease to set up Help Desk.

It a letter to district collectors, municipal commissioners, deans and principals of medical colleges and hospitals and CDM & PHOs, PK Mohapatra, additional chief secretary, Health and Family Welfare department has directed to strictly enforce the government advisory on Help Desk with immediate effect in order to ease the management of COVID facilities across the state.

Mohapatra said despite the government’s advisory issued on April 22 for setting up the Help Desk to provide information to the near and dear ones of the COVID-19 patients being treated in COVID facilities, complaints are being received that they were not getting any feedback on the status of the patients.

After careful examination of the matter, the government has stipulated the following guidelines to be followed for establishing the dedicated Help Desk in each COVID-19 facility with immediate effect:

• Each facility (both government and private) shall mandatorily set up a dedicated Help Desk to function 24×7.
• The help desk must have a dedicated telephone preferably a toll-free number
• The toll-free helpline number of the help desk must be intimated to the State
  Level Authorised Officer i.e. Addl DMET, Dr Umakant Satpathy
• The toll-free numbers of all facilities should be widely notified to the
  public
• The help desk shall be manned with sufficient personnel so as to attend all calls
  round the clock in shift manner. Apart from telephonic communication, the help desk shall use the social media like WhatsApp etc to communicate the voice and pictures of the patient to the attendants of the patient
• A dedicated conference room may be set up outside the facility with provision of TV and cameras which can be connected with CCTVs installed inside the facility so that the attendant can see his patient and talk with him/her.
• Steps shall be taken to collect and record the contact numbers of the patient at
  the time of admission and even if not inquired by the attendant of the patient, a
  general information of the condition of the patient shall be communicated through SMS or WhatsApp to the attendant of the patient every day at least once

The letter further said any violation of the above provisions and non-functioning of the help desk will lead to necessary action as deemed fit against the erring hospital.