Doctors appeal people visit hospitals and clinics only in case of emergency not for general check-ups. The Rising Nepal reports that doctor associated with the National Doctors Association (NDA) have urged people to avoid visiting hospitals except for emergency cases as a public health tactic to slow down the transmission and spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

A delegation of NDA, which had a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Iswar Pokhrel, who is also the coordinator of the high-level committee formed for the prevention and control of COVID-19 on Tuesday, made the appeal.

Patients visiting hospitals are always at a high risk of transmitting contagious illness like coronavirus while the healthcare profession also bears a disproportionate risk, said Dr Raksha Shrestha, a central member of NDA.

“So controlling overcrowd in hospitals can keep safe both the patients and healthcare providers from virus transmission,” she said.

Dr Shrestha of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital Mahargunj shared the TUTH was still flooded with patients. “This poses a risk for both the healthcare professionals and patients.”

The NDA has also asked the government to make hospitals of all States well-equipped with all necessary equipment like personal protection equipment (PPE) and sufficient diagnostic kits to battle the possible outbreak of the disease.

“The government must form a throat swab collection centre at each hospital so that the suspected patients don’t have to travel all the way to Teku-based Public Health Laboratory to confirm their disease. While travelling to the lab, the suspected person may come in contact with many people in public places and vehicles.”

Suspecting that there might be cases of undiagnosed COVID-19, the doctors also asked the government to encourage people to go through the lab test if they suspected to have infected with the disease. She informed that tests of only about 500 suspected COVID-19 patients were carried in Nepal by now and there was not a situation to say that the country was totally free from the COVID-19 patients.

The doctors also asked the government to expand the lab at all seven States so that the person suspected with the disease did not have to travel to Kathmandu for the test, which also posed threats of public transmission of the deadly disease.