Why Routine surgeries have been stopped in times of COVID-19 pandemic?
As everyone is aware that our country is in a lockdown for three weeks due to Why Routine surgeries have been stopped in times of COVID-19 pandemic? Almost every day I get 2-3 calls enquiring about routine surgeries by the patients. The nature of these surgeries varies from gall stones, piles, hernias to absolutely elective surgeries like abdominoplasty post bariatric. Most of these patients had been advised these long back but they kept on postponing them. Question arises why they are so keen to get them done now and why most hospitals are refusing.
First things first. Most of these patients want their surgeries now as they are absolutely free, most are on paid leaves for 3 weeks so enough time to recover. However they don’t want their surgeries to be done at hospitals which are having Why Routine surgeries have been stopped in times of COVID-19 pandemic?
Why are we refusing?
- At this time of crisis when people should not be seen together if we operate such cases it will expose them to the hospital. With each patient there are bound to be 2-3 attendants. And imagine if even 10 such cases are done every day it means a crowd of nearly 40-50 absolutely avoidable people. And if any one of them has corona or is an asymptomatic carrier, imagine the spread of infection as corona virus has nearly 100% strike rate.
- We are not testing many patients those who are even symptomatic as there is an extreme dearth of testing kits. Suppose we take up a patient for routine surgery who is a carrier. He or she poses a great threat to our doctors right from the junior doctors to surgeons and maximum risk is to anesthetists. Of course the nurses, the ward boys etc. are also unnecessary exposed.
- At any given time there are many sick patients admitted in any hospital. So those are the ones who are at maximum risk of catching the disease. And as they are already very weak with lower immunity and poor body health they are at maximum risk of having serious complications of Why Routine surgeries have been stopped in times of COVID-19 pandemic? or even death.
- So in order to keep hospitals battle ready, least strain on available resources, economizing the use of protective gears for health workers, the routine surgeries have been stopped at all hospitals. This was done voluntarily by most big hospitals and now of course there are government regulations in place to stop all non-essential activities at hospitals including routine clinics and OPDs
- So which cases are we actually operating nowadays? All emergency surgeries are being performed which include trauma surgeries, appendicitis, perforations etc. Basically all those cases where there is a direct threat to life if not performed at the earliest. All surgeries which are needed for preservation of life and limit/prevent the progression of disease need to be undertaken with due precautions.
- Last but not the least all attempts are made to make hospital stay very short in these cases. And even patients should cooperate in this and not press for excess stay at hospitals as its threatening to their life as well
What’s the conclusion?
In this hour of crisis lets be little laid back. Let’s stay at home and please don’t press your surgeons to perform these cases. As nothing is permanent, soon this phase will also pass and god willing everything will return to normal. So till then have patience!