Convert your home into hospital if no beds available: senior doctor

Dr Ved Chaturvedi, Rheumatologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has suggested converting your home into a hospital instead of searching for beds all over in Delhi. The retired Lieutenant General of Army Hospital suggests ways how to convert your home into a hospital.

New Delhi: COVID-19 is continuously wreaking havoc across the entire country, including the capital New Delhi. Around 26,000 new cases have been reported in New Delhi in the last 24 hours. Considering the gravity of the situation, the Delhi government has decided to impose a complete lockdown for a week. The number of available beds in hospitals has also reduced considerably.

In such a dire situation, Dr Ved Chaturvedi, Rheumatologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, has suggested converting residences into hospitals instead of searching for beds all over Delhi. The retired Lieutenant General of Army Hospital said that for the last one week, many people have come to him asking for beds, but they get disappointed due to non-availability.

Home hospitalization

Dr Chaturvedi has suggested that home hospitalization could be a solution to address the rising demand for beds. He said the patient with mild symptoms or no symptoms could be cured within a week by staying at home.

"However, if the infection is severe or the patient is having difficulty in breathing, then in such a case, you need to be admitted to a hospital. It is also important to have a pulse oximeter so that you can check your oxygen saturation level, which shouldn't come below 94 per cent," he said.

Dr Ved also explained that there is a way to increase oxygen levels at home. If the amount of oxygen in one's blood is falling below 94, then the person should start lying on his stomach instead of back. By doing this, his lungs will expand and this can pump a lot of oxygen into the blood.

Get oxygen cylinders or oxygen concentrator machine

The second way, he mentioned, is that if one is unable to balance oxygen in his blood, he can get an oxygen cylinder at his house or take obtain an oxygen concentrator machine. The difference between the two is that in the oxygen cylinder, the person will have to refill the cylinder once the oxygen is exhausted, but the oxygen concentrator machine generates oxygen by absorbing air present in the atmosphere.

Take help of chest CT Scan and telemedicine

Dr Ved also said that one can get a CT Scan of the chest at a diagnostic centre. The report will show the viral load. If the load is high, then it's better to get admitted to any hospital with available beds. He further said if the viral load is slightly higher, then the patients can stay in touch with local doctors, who can prescribe steroids. The drug is inexpensive and seems to be more effective than Remdesivir. Patients can avoid their condition from further deterioration by taking 20mg of steroids on a daily basis, he said.