IMH-Erragadda revives workflow amid Covid

Establishes standard protocols to provide safe mental healthcare services

Hyderabad: After facing difficulties in handling patients needing mental healthcare services during the initial stages of Covid-19 pandemic, the State-run Institute of Mental Health (IMH), Erragadda, has now managed to make the workflow more efficient and bring down the rate of infections within the hospital campus.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, mental healthcare institutions not only in the State but across the country had to face difficulties in ensuring availability of safe mental healthcare services to patients.

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Apart from the pandemic-induced mental health concerns, managing psychiatric disorders among patients had become a concern. Moreover, the IMH-Erragadda receives a large number of outpatient walk-ins. Added to this, patients tend to lack needed capacity and become overly paranoid about movement restrictions and the necessity to wear masks.

“Initially, when non-Covid healthcare facilities were revived after the lockdown, we did face difficulties. During that time, many of our hospital employees and patients had tested Covid positive. A few months into the pandemic, now we have managed to establish standard protocols aimed at providing safe mental healthcare services,” says IMH Superintendent Dr M Uma Shankar.

The IMH authorities said that guidelines released by Health Ministry have helped in providing safe mental healthcare services.

“At present, we have managed to fully reduce infections while continuing inpatient and outpatient services. All patients who need inpatient admissions must undergo rapid Covid tests and also ten-day quarantine before they are shifted to inpatient wards,” he says.

The IMH has constituted a Hospital Infection Committee to ensure implementation of the norms recommended by the Health Ministry during the Covid-19 pandemic. The hospital authorities have also ensured adequate human resources and other resources including testing facilities and equipment like thermometers or pulse oximeters for following the precautionary measures.
The hospital has access to adequate supply of masks, hand sanitizers, face shields, gloves, PPE kits etc.

“All personnel have been trained on hand hygiene, physical distancing, donning and doffing of the complete PPE kit, disinfection and waste management. Meticulous planning was taken up to establish right processes, right from the moment patients enter and till they exit the hospital,” he said.

The IMH also attracts a large number of homeless persons with mental illnesses that present a lot of difficulties. Patients’ clinical conditions such as catatonia or delirium also interfere with their co-operation for procedures such as swab collection.

“To handle such situations, we have imparted training to our staff. At present, Covid cases have come down but a threat from second wave persists. We urge people to be cautious and follow guidelines,” Dr. Uma Shankar cautions.

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