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Covid home treatment on hold

30 Jun 2021

  • Hospitals ready, no need of homes: Health Ministry

  • Notes significant drop in patients: Health Ministry

By Buddhika Samaraweera   The Health Ministry hopes to provide treatment for Covid-19 patients at hospitals instead of providing home treatment, as there is a considerable decrease in the number of Covid-19 patients being reported these days, and since the capacity of hospitals has not been exceeded, the Ministry of Health stated. Health Ministry Communications Director, Public Health Services Deputy Director General, and Disaster Preparedness and Response Division Head Dr. Hemantha Herath told The Morning that there is no issue these days in treating Covid-19 patients in hospitals, since the number of patients being reported has slightly gone down. “At present, only 26,000 beds out of 30,000 available in hospitals and Covid-19 treatment centres are occupied. That is, there are about 4,000 beds left. In such a situation, it is not necessary to keep the patients at home and treat them. Instead, we hope to treat them at a hospital or treatment centre,” he said. Speaking further, he said: “Home treatment was implemented as a pilot project in the Kalutara District. If the number of patients had increased significantly like what happened in May, it would have been difficult to admit patients to hospitals. During that time, some patients had to be kept at home for several days until they were referred to a hospital.”  Dr. Herath further said that in view of these factors, home treatment was implemented as a pilot project to prepare for such a situation in the future. He said that through the implementation of the said pilot project, an understanding of the methodology of providing home treatment was gained, and that some problematic situations that may arise were also identified. Adding that the pilot project would be further implemented in selected areas in the Kalutara District, he said: “We do not know as to what kind of situation we will have to face in the future. It depends on the support of the people. Therefore, if there is a need for home treatment in the event of a future situation, the pilot project will be continued to maintain the knowledge required to implement it.” However, the Health Ministry, on 27 June, introduced a special hotline, 1390, to facilitate the provision of home treatment for Covid-19 patients. The Ministry had in a media release stated that a rise of Covid-19 patients has caused a congestion of interim treatment centres and dedicated Covid-19 hospitals. Accordingly, the Ministry stated that asymptotic patients would be directed to home treatment and that they could contact a doctor via the 1390 hotline.  It was also reported that the Ministry had assigned about 400 doctors for the implementation of the programme where they had been assigned to communicate with the patients who would be directed to home treatment. When asked about the recent statement of Health Ministry stating that the capacity of the hospitals and treatment centres had been congested, Dr. Herath claimed that this was the situation as of the date of that statement. However, he added that at present there is no problem in treating Covid-19 patients in hospitals. The Health Ministry on 28 June launched a programme designed to enable Covid-19 patients to receive treatment at home. The programme was launched jointly by the Government Medical Officers' Association, the Bank of Ceylon, and Dialog. This programme was launched as a pilot programme in the Kalutara District for a period of three weeks and is expected to be implemented in the Western Province and the rest of the country in the future.


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