Covid-19 disrupts cataract surgeries at Bengaluru's Minto hospital

Designating 100 out of the 300 beds in Minto Hospital for Covid-19 treatment has hurt the poor since the state’s largest eye hospital is no longer doing elective surgeries.

Minto has been the go-to public medical facility for the economically weaker sections and the elderly who cannot afford expensive cataract surgeries in private hospitals. People afflicted with diabetes who experience a rapid loss of vision also throng the hospital for treatment.

On October 5, the hospital began one form of elective surgery: Oculoplasty. “Unfortunately, Minto was designated as a Covid facility,” the hospital’s director Dr Sujatha Rathod said in reference to the disruption to surgeries. “We have not had Covid patients but doctors on duty in Covid wards are quarantined here. We were catering only to outpatients and emergency surgeries.”

Since June 22, when the hospital restarted OPD services, it had done only 17 emergency surgeries.

Two of them were Covid-positive patients operated at the hospital’s trauma and emergency care centre.

Safety protocols

During surgeries, Minto ensures that no aerosols from the nose enter the eye as the patient is compulsorily masked, Dr Rathod said. The operation theatres are kept cool before the patient is brought in so that the surgery can be done with minimal air-conditioning.

“Fans are kept running instead and doctors expose themselves to the patient as minimally as possible,” Dr Rathod said. She said spillage is also prevented to the possible extent. The hospital has restricted the surgeries to emergency procedures such as retinal, laser and injections, besides procedures that come with trauma.

Minto is currently avoiding admissions. It caters only to walk-in patients, emergency surgeries and outpatient emergency.

“After the operation, we keep the patient only for a short time and send them. None of them has tested positive for Covid-19 so far,” Dr Rathod added.

The 100 beds allocated to Covid are lying vacant. “We want to use them for cataract patients, but the government wants us to hold them since there’s a surge in cases. Even in the remaining 200 beds, daycare is given, and patients are sent home,” Rathod said.

The hospital has not yet started cataract surgeries, which constitutes the bulk of its work. Dr Rathod said the hospital has started retinal laser surgeries but not retinal surgeries per se, buckling, posterior segment surgeries or vitrectomy. “These are sub-specialities that need long hours of surgery,” Dr Rathod said.

Prior to the pandemic, the hospital attended 600-800 outpatients daily, but the number has come down to 150-200. Out of the 200 staffers, 25 have tested positive for Covid-19 as they were posted for Covid duties in Victoria and Bowring hospitals.