DME issues instructions to paediatricians

State readies for third wave of COVID-19

The Directorate of Medical Education, anticipating that the next wave of COVID-19 could affect children, has said that a nodal officer, preferably a paediatrician, be appointed to prepare for the same. Medical college deans have been asked to set aside 100 beds with oxygen facilities and monitors in their hospitals to provide ICU care to children. No paediatrician or paediatric staff nurse should be posted for regular duty rotation. At least a fourth of the nurses in hospitals should be trained to attend to emergencies in the paediatric ward. The DME has directed that medical officers of general medicine and anaesthesia should be trained to handle paediatric emergencies in batches.