Adapt to be adept

How hospitals in India took on the many challenges that came their way during the pandemic

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

Scary yet humbling. That is how the health care community in India describes its experience of the Covid-19 pandemic that affected more than 80 lakh people and took more than a lakh lives. The novel coronavirus in itself was a challenge, an enigma that kept unravelling at a breathtaking speed. We were clearly unprepared, and it showed—from supply chain disruptions and lack of personal protective equipment and ventilators to staff shortages and exhausted caregivers.

But the crisis forced hospital administrations to come together and rise to the challenge of treating an overwhelming stream of patients. This, while trying to understand the virus, even as routine surgeries and elective procedures got cancelled, leading to a major occupancy drop and significant revenue losses. As public hospitals were converted into Covid-19 centres, patients who depended on them were lost. Unnecessary delays in non-Covid treatments led to a surge of preventable emergencies and non-Covid deaths, thereby compounding the panic.