For the past few months, India has been responding to world pandemic, COVID-19 – A virus that spread from person-to-person contact and can also be transmitted, as it can stay alive on any surface for many days. The pandemic resulted in a strained number of critically ill people. As most healthcare professionals volunteered themselves to address COVID-19 affected people, there is a limited number of doctors and specialists for other emergency cases such as heart attack, injury, or eye conditions that may result in loss of vision without immediate surgery.
The New Normal
People are locked inside, social distancing guidelines have been issued all around, and no one is allowed to step outside their home unless it is a life-death situation. Unfortunately, during this lockdown period, the most strained organ of the human body has been the eyes. They are working from home with no tea/lunch breaks, staying connected with the world via social media, watching movies to cure boredom, or playing online games to distract themselves from the current atmosphere. Your eyes have been continuously functioning without any proper care.
This lifestyle routine has resulted in a surge of patients who are complaining about eye irritation, redness, swelling, and vision loss. Although you can relieve the pain and discomfort by using some home remedies such as ice cubes, vitamin C intake, and hydrating your system, you may like to consult an eye doctor if the problem doesn’t go away on its own within a few hours.
Considering our people’s health, we have started following a few guidelines while seeing our patients, such as:
Patients:
Elderly patients have been our primary concern. Our goal is not to put them in any compromising situation and to avoid any risk of infection during the surgical session. We now perform transplants and bilateral sequential cataract surgery.
We encourage patients to use face mask and eye protection devices while using an alcohol clean-up before making any physical contact with them. We also continue to see emergency cases, follow-ups and perform cataract surgery to prevent complete vision loss among patients who had to cancel their appointments before due to lockdown situation.
All of our face-to-face appointments and direct examination are conducted under appropriate investigation.
Note:
If you are suffering from cold, fever, continuous sneezing, or any symptoms of COVID-19, please bring it to your doctor’s knowledge immediately. We will locate you to a suitable place where your condition gets better and prevent transmission of infection to your eyes.
Our Staff:
During the lockdown 1.0, we implemented telephone redirections and conducted virtual meetings via Zoom to create a guideline for staff’s well-being and patient handling. All our staff members address the provision of N95 masks, along with the eye protectors, Perspex shields, YAG laser, and ophthalmic investigative devices for our technicians and ophthalmologists who evaluate the patients.
The majority of our staff members are furloughed. Only the healthy crew are assigned to deal with back-office activities such as patient scheduling, marketing, and clinic management. And a team of clinical staff to assist in emergency cases and surgery are assigned under the healthcare guidelines.
Final Thoughts
Life is about to change for the coming few years. By adapting the constant changes, we can serve the nation and establish a healthy, immune population to fight against this pandemic until reliable tests are available or a vaccine gets developed to boost immunity and to resist the effects of the virus. Until then, we will evaluate our patients, perform emergency surgeries, and address follow-ups to adapt to the new normal.
To learn more about our treatments, appointments, and consultation program, visit our website or call us to book an appointment.
