A huge warship is out on the high seas when a part of it gets damaged by an enemy mine. The water starts filling up and spreading all over inside the ship. Now what should be the next step? The smart thing to do would be to lock down the hatch of the part of the ship affected. It would keep the water contained in one part and prevent the spread of water in other parts and thus keeping the ship afloat and running.

What we learn from this can be applied in our fight against COVID-19. We need to lock down the hatch and prevent the spread of this disease.

This is what the Chirayu model is all about. Chirayu hospital an 800 bed successfully running multi-specialty facility working under the commendable leadership of a practicing doctor and its founder Dr. Ajay Goenka locked itself down and declared it a COVID-19 only center, thus acting as the closed hatch that was preventing the water to spread in other parts of the ship, it could prevent the spread of COVID-19 from patients to rest of the society.

Chirayu has divided its healthcare workers in teams with an individual team including doctors, nurses, lab and x-ray technicians, food handlers and sanitation workers who would remain in the hospital for 14 days and serve the patients, and then quarantine themselves for the next 14 days that is the incubation period of the virus while the other team takes over. This cycling of health care workers would prevent the exposure of the hospital staff all at once.

Chirayu with its state of art health infrastructure, experienced medical staff in critical care and more than 50 ventilators is fully equipped and ready to serve COVID-19 patients.

Chirayu model of dedicating the full fledged hospital for COVID-19 prevents unnecessary exposure of many individuals. In military terms, it is like taking the battle away from civilian areas to the borders of the fighting nations just that here the enemy is not a neighborhood nation but a virus.

Each COVID-19 patient typically spreads the disease to 2.8 new persons that is its reproductive number. If we keep the patients of a large area like a district, in a single well equipped hospital like Chirayu has shown. It would reduce the possibility of exposure to just the team working at the time and thus we will be able to reduce the reproductive number of the virus by complete isolation.

If there is a tear in the ship would we want it to be localized where we could close down the hatch and prevent the rest of the ship from filling up with water or in multiple places where it would be difficult to contain the spread.

We need a Chirayu like model all over the state where we can isolate patients from each district in one or two centers and prevent the spread of the virus both in society as well as healthcare workers.

Isolating large number of patients under one roof also has some added unforeseen advantages which we have seen in Chirayu hospital.

One of that is the maximal utilization of our precious human resources which could get hurt during this pandemic as we have learned from global experience. Italy had allowed COVID-19 patients in several hospitals at a time while china had developed dedicated COVID 19 hospitals, thus Italy suffered a major setback of the large number of infected health care workers at a time while china was able to better manage its human resources.

Better ancillary care can be provided in a big center with large numbers like the psychiatric care with a psychotherapist inside a hospital covering patients who need it, while it may be difficult to have therapist inside a hospital for a small number of patients.

Large numbers also bring along with it a sense of community like Chirayu has shown. A disease can have a deep impact on the mental health of an individual and especially an infectious disease, like COVID-19, where the doctors and nursing staff who attend you wear full Personal protective equipment which can have a very alienating and isolated feel. Large numbers of patients inside Chirayu playing carom or chess with other patients have shown that a community feeling can definitely help in disease being less distressful for all patients.

I as a healthcare professional would recommend a Chirayu like model for combating COVID-19 in our country and thus keeping the warship of India afloat and running.

Originally posted here:

Chirayu Model For Fight Against COVID-19 In Bhopal With The Help Of The MP Government - Elemental