Anxiety among Victoria Hospital nurses as colleague tests positive

The 37-year-old is set to undergo a retest

There was anxiety in the nursing community in Victoria Hospital on Wednesday after a 37-year-old COVID-19 ward nurse tested positive.

The nurse, who was about to complete her 14-day quarantine period after completing a week’s duty in the COVID-19 ward, was tested on the 13th day along with 11 other batchmates. While the 11 tested negative, she tested positive.

While this has raised several concerns over the quality of PPE kits and other protection equipment given to the nurses and doctors at the hospital, hospital authorities said there was no compromise on this.

Recently, staff, including nurses at the Vani Vilas Hospital on Victoria Hospital premises went on a snap protest after a pregnant woman admitted at the high-risk isolation ward tested positive.

“The entire batch is shocked over their colleague testing positive. We have met the ward nodal officer and have demanded that our colleague be kept in a separate isolation facility. As she is psychologically disturbed, we have asked the hospital authorities to provide her and the entire batch counselling by psychiatrists. We have also requested that the nurse should not be left alone,” said BMCRI Permanent Nursing Officers’ Association president Santosh Kumar B.

BMCRI Dean and Director C.R. Jayanthi said the PPE kits given to the nurses and doctors were of good quality. “We are surprised how the nurse got the infection. We have given them adequate training on infection control practices and protocols to be adopted while handling positive patients. We are looking into whether there was an error in the donning/doffing procedure adopted by her,” said Dr. Jayanthi. Stating that the nurse was asymptomatic, the dean said she had been admitted in a separate room within the COVID-19 ward. “We are also repeating her swab test and have extended the quarantine of her batchmates,” she said.

A senior faculty member from the hospital said the nurse testing positive indicated that the PPE kits may not be of good quality. “It is a failure on the part of BMCRI as well as the government in protecting the staff from infection. We do not want the drama of celebration of nurses day and showering petals on COVID warriors. We want proper facilities and infrastructure,” the doctor said.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar, who is the COVID-19 spokesperson in the State, said there was no compromise on the quality of PPE kits. “We are investigating how she got the infection,” he said.

This is the sixth case of a healthcare professional getting infected in Karnataka. The others are a private doctor and two nurses in Kalaburagi, followed by a nurse and doctor in Shifa Hospital in Bengaluru, and a nurse from a primary health centre in Davanagere.

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