While all our attention these days is totally focused on patients infected with the Coronavirus, let’s remind ourselves that other needy patients suffering from one or more disabling diseases also need a thought – and more.
It is true that hospitals are cancelling surgeries that are not emergencies. Dentists’ offices are closing. Routine check-ups are being put off. So what should one do about patients plagued with other health issues of concern?
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Clearly, there’s has never been a good time to be sick, but with so much medical attention focused on COVID-19, this is a particularly stressful time for doctors to give medical attention to anything else.
Take for instance the plight of “cancer patients” as COVID-19 spreads. The people who are perhaps at the highest risk in this outbreak are cancer patients. And here’s the dilemma. If they continue treatment like chemotherapy that weakens the immune system it will be more likely for them to have a serious case of COVID-19, exposing themselves to other people in the doctor’s office. If they stay home and skip treatment, they may risk a recurrence or spread of their cancer.
Even as this new Coronavirus terrifies people and monopolises the health care system, let us not forget that women will continue to give birth, people with chronic illnesses will need care, and deadly strokes, heart attacks, and traffic accidents will continue to happen.
Recognising this reality, doctors, clinics, and hospitals are taking more steps to protect their patients from COVID-19, while also devoting their time to other serious patients.
We now know of hospitals cancelling surgeries that aren’t emergencies, aiming to cut down on using masks and gowns that soon might be urgently needed to treat COVID-19 patients. The new Coronavirus has blanketed the globe over the last
Three months, leading to more than 1,098,762 confirmed cases and more than 59,172 deaths.
As a precaution, patients are now being asked to come to doctors’ offices, either alone or with just one companion. Pregnant women getting ultrasounds are being asked to share their joy and get moral support only via video chat.
“Telemedicine”, luckily, has come to our rescue. In the United States, for instance, many are urged to sort out problems via telemedicine. And telemedicine which is going to help people now — out of necessity– will do it later definitely out of convenience.
Understandably, there are limits for both medical professionals and patients in dispensing medical care via video. But experience will reassure that in future telemedicine is able to handle a lot of things and the new role for telemedicine will outlast the present crisis.
Telemedicine allows health care professionals to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients in remote locations using telecommunications technology. They can access medical expertise quickly, efficiently and without travel. It uses information technologies and electronic communications to provide remote clinical services to patients. The digital transmission of medical imaging, remote medical diagnosis and evaluations, and video consultations with specialists are all examples of telemedicine. We are able to accomplish a lot by speaking to patients directly by phone (or video).
At New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery, a leading orthopaedic hospital, nonessential care has been cancelled, though the hospital will “continue to provide essential onsite care, and rapidly broadening virtual care (telehealth services), and will be increasing the availability of injury care at all locations”. The hospital will accept orthopaedic patients displaced from other hospitals that are focusing on COVID-19 care, and some have even donated their extra gloves and masks to other needy hospitals.
Not all countries of the world allow the use of telemedicine. Also, one of its main disadvantages is the lack of availability in most places and the cost. Its limited access to high speed Internet and to smartphones, besides credentialing, licensing, reimbursement, sustainability and malpractice suits will act as a hurdle.
What are the risks of Telemedicine? It requires clear communication in real-time between you, your patients, and other medical professionals. Low-grade equipment can cause miscommunication or even misdiagnosis, resulting in poor patient outcomes and dangerous liability risks.
Risks aside, globally, the World Health Organisation and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of the US have waxed eloquent about the virtues of deploying telemedicine. It could well be the answer that India is looking for in the wake of the global pandemic as it can prevent emergency rooms from being overcrowded, limit exposure among healthcare workers to infected individuals and cut down on the use of masks, gowns and gloves for workers by keeping patients at home. More importantly, it can allow medicine as usual, to continue, because not just COVID-19, but other patients need care and attention too!
We are in the midst of the most dangerous pandemic and no one knows how it will end. But when we come out of the nightmare, let’s hope the world will be totally different, more inclusive and we, its inhabitants, more supportive of each other. Further, let’s pray that the crucible of sufferings we have gone through will make us better, more human and more attentive to true values.
(Dr Francisco Colaço is a eniormost consulting physician and the pioneer of Echocardiography in Goa)
