Hyderabad: HR and non-medical staff in corporate hospitals, a worried lot

Hyderabad: Non-medical staff in corporate hospitals are a worried lot these days. A good number of these staff working in HR and Billing departments and Cash counters etc were getting infected with coronavirus from the last few weeks. Doctors, nurses, and staff working in patient care wings have been testing Covid positive usually but off late non-medical staff were also getting impacted.

Hospital administration and heads were puzzled with this trend as non-medical staff generally are not exposed directly to covid patients getting treated in the hospital like doctors, nurses, and other health staff. Also, they stay put in their allotted dedicated rooms and cabins without moving up or down various floors in the hospitals as in the case of healthcare professionals and workers.

Recently several staff from the HR department in a noted corporate hospital were found to be infected with the coronavirus. After cracking their heads to find out the reasons for this trend one of the main reasons that hospital administrations found out was frequent interaction between the medical staff and HR staff.

With some reason or the other and due to Covid duties and added benefits and quarantine working shifts, doctors, nurses etc are knocking on the doors of HR wing quite regularly with their issues. And, most of the time doctors are going to HR department after finishing their Covid duty.

" After completion of duty and before heading home, doctors (after removing PPE Kits) are visiting HR section. This is proving to be very risky as doctors, who were exposed to Covid patients, are directly interacting with HR staff within a short gap. Unlike healthcare workers, non-medical staff do not wear PPE Kits at work and hence prone to getting the infection and that's what has happened," said an official from the administration wing at a corporate hospital.

It is time hospital managements make some arrangements like plastic cover separations like being done by some banks or else the non-medical staff will be vulnerable always, the official said.