Second wave took toll on health services in Punjab: Study

CHANDIGARH: The second Covid wave some months back disrupted essential health services in Punjab, but its impact was more intense on the government health facilities than the private institutions, according to a study.

The study was conducted in Amritsar and covered eight public and 47 private institutions engaged in the battle against Covid.

The pandemic impacted ante-natal care, institutional births and emergency services the most with a significant difference observed between the public and the private health care sector in the provision of these health services.

All the other essential health services -- routine immunization services, noncommunicable diseases screening and treatment, routine laboratory services, blood bank services, dental services and imaging and radio diagnosis services --were equally affected in both public and private health sector institutes.

Among the multiple reasons given by the respondents, financial difficulties faced during the lockdown was the single most common reason given by all the health centres for disruption of essential health services followed by insufficient staff to provide services-- a reason cited by 96.3% of respondents. Closure of outpatient services on the direction of the state government was given as the reason for disruption by 94.5% of participants.

‘Need for capacity building, responsive health care system’

Decrease in outpatient volume (94.5%), drop in inpatient volume due to cancellation of elective care (87.2%), non-availability of inpatient services/ hospital beds (78.1%) and clinical staff deployed to provide Covid-19 relief (72.7%) were the other key reasons given for disruption of essential health services.

Based on the findings of the study, the experts have recommended the creation of a robust public health care infrastructure and recruitment of health care manpower according to the laid down norms.

To motivate health workers, recognition and financial incentives for doing extra work has also been suggested.

The experts have also laid stress on providing health insurance coverage to the private health care professionals engaged in the fight against Covid-19, establishing better partnerships and transparency between the public and private health sector and regular training of health care workers for improving their efficiency.

The findings of the study done by Dr Priyanka Devgun, Dr Shivesh Devgan and Dr Harjot Singh of Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Amritsar; Dr Sukhpal Singh, district immunization officer, Amritsar; and Dr Amanbir Singh, medical officer, Amritsar, have been published in the latest edition of the Journal of Community Health Management.

Highlighting the keys to ensuring appropriate careseeking behaviour and adherence to public health advice vital to defeating the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Priyanka Devgun, concluded: “Capacity building and a responsive health care system, maintaining population trust in the capacity of the health system to safely meet essential needs and to control infection risk in health facilities hold the key.”