The medical education department has decided to constitute scientific task force committees at the district level, to monitor Covid-19 cases.
These committees will comprise specialists from all faculties and monitor each Covid-19 positive case reported from that particular district. This follows suggestions given by experts from medical associations during the video conference held by Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar recently.
The committees will have specialists like paediatricians, gynaecologists, virologists, pulmonologists, critical care and general physicians.
Till date, there are Covid-19 positive cases reported in 19 districts including Bengaluru Urban. The recent case reported from Vijayapura has raised a concern among the doctors in the state. As per government protocol, every district hospital is getting ready and some of them have already set up facilities to tackle Covid-19. The teleservices are arranged from the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases in Bengaluru, to guide doctors in the districts.
During the video conference, the doctors brought to the notice of the minister that the Shivamogga district administration has already constituted such a team of doctors and it is effective in curbing the spread of Covid-19 and requested the minister to follow the same model in other districts.
Dr Kiran Deshmukh, who practises in Kalaburagi, said, “We must have a task force in each district so that there is coordination of work. Constituting such a committee will help in following instructions and treatment protocols."
Sudhakar said this option can be explored given the large pool of doctors in the state. “In fact we have a high number of doctors compared to other states and we can easily build a team to monitor the progress in each district. Critical care and paediatricians are key areas where we need more inputs from the doctors.”
The minister directed the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences to collect details of doctors and specialists available in each district in a day or two. Soon after collecting the details, the department will constitute the district-level committees.