SHILLONG: After the Joint Action Committee of the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) nurses voiced concern over breach in quarantine protocol and came down hard on the authorities for inaction against discrimination, NEIGRIHMS Director Dr P Bhattacharya, on Monday, took a stand for the institute stating that there will be no compromise on the staff’s safety.
The nurses had expressed disappointment with the authorities for their inaction against the discrimination that they were facing. They had maintained that the single positive patient in the institute had exposed numerous attending staff and other health workers to the virus.
As a likely response to this, the director said the institute has more than 300 doctors and nurses besides 700 staff and it is illogical to send everyone to quarantine. Bhattacharya informed that the institute has sent high risk contacts of the positive patient for quarantine while low risk contacts have been sent home as per government protocol.
He pointed out that the NEIGRIHMS authorities did an assessment of the high-risk contacts as three of the nurses had handled her.
“We want our staff to be safe and thus, high-risk people were sent for quarantine. But if people expect us to shut down the entire hospital, it is not logical,” he said.
The institute director also informed that trials runs were made when the COVID Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was made functional in the beginning.
“When I had a word with the Health Ministry, they asked me how many COVID patients have we treated and my answer was only one, who is asymptomatic,” he said.
While asserting that NEIGRIHMS is following all guidelines of the Health department as and when it is revised, he said that there will be no compromise on the safety of the institute staff and the institute will work with the safety parameter.