Pandemic taught us to expand primary care, says Chandigarh Adviser

UT Adviser Dharam Pal today released a pictorial booklet “Covid-19 & Home-Based Care: Beating The Waves” to inform the general public about the home-based care for Covid-19.

The booklet is written and designed by Dr Ravindra Khaiwal, Additional Professor, Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, and Prof Ashish Bhalla, Department of Internal Medicine, PGIMER, and Dr Suman Mor, Chairperson and Associate Professor, Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University, in partnership with the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM, India), for wider public outreach.

During the release, Dharam Pal mentioned that “the Covid-19 pandemic taught us that we need to expand primary care. As the first line of protection, primary care strengthens the patient’s ability to manage infection at home, minimise transmission risk and prevent overcrowding in hospitals.”

He said: “With Covid-19 appropriate behaviour and vaccines, we can significantly reduce the impact of Covid-19, if cases rise in near future”. He highlighted that this infographic booklet on home-based care would be a valuable tool to enhance self-care in suspected or confirmed Covid-19 patients.

Prof Bhalla said the purpose of this booklet was to educate about Covid-19 and home-based care using easy-to-understand graphics. He stressed that it was crucial to keep monitoring vital symptoms during the home care. He specifically mentioned that patients or caregivers should be in direct contact with doctors during home isolation and update their conditions regularly.

Dr Suman Mor mentioned that this booklet would help in beating the impact of the third wave as experts suspect that due to massive vaccination, the future Covid-19 wave could have patients with none or mild symptoms.

Dr Khaiwal highlighted that this booklet provides basic instructions on home isolation, treatments, recording of vital parameters, clinical stratification, including best practices such as “proning” to manage Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms.