How states are using triage centres to manage the Covid-19 situation

These centers determine if a Covid patient should be admitted to a hospital, placed under home quarantine, or go to a Covid care center

Amid a raging fresh wave of Covid-19 in India, many states are adopting a 'triaging scheme' that involves public sector healthcare bodies and teleconsultation services to help patients find doctors without physically going to hospitals.

States including Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are using triaging to tackle the potent coronavirus wave that has brought India to a halt.

What is triaging?

Triage is a method of prioritising patients' care by assigning degrees of seriousness to their illnesses with and without medication. It helps in deciding the order of treatment especially when there is a large number of cases of a particular disease.

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Triage centres help in determining whether a Covid patient should be admitted to a hospital, placed under home quarantine, or admitted to a Covid care center. This in turn decreases the burden on hospitals and healthcare workers and makes resources available for those who require it.

In Kerala, all Covid-related facilities and consultations are being provided for free by the government. Tamil Nadu has set up triage centers where patients with Covid-19 are being screened to determine the best plan of treatment based on their symptoms.

In Mumbai, a BMC bed tracker dashboard offers real-time data on bed availability across hospitals and Jumbo covid facilities. It is categorised as follows: Patients who test positive for Covid-19, divided into those who need oxygen and those who don't, patients requiring admission to Intensive Care Units (ICUs), pediatric ICUs, neonatal ICUs, pregnant women, those needing dialysis, and so on. These groups are further divided by the facilities.