Mumbai: To seek cooperation from local doctors in the fight against Covid, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and a state-appointed task force of doctors, under its Majha Doctor initiative, interacted with more than 17,500 doctors across Maharashtra on Sunday. They guided the local doctors on various aspects, including treatment protocol, treating patients during home isolation or institutional quarantine, reasonable use of drugs and oxygen, and treating mucormycosis, among others. In what was termed as a one-off attempt of interaction with the family doctors, the state leadership urged the doctors to manage patients taking treatment at home well. Thackeray said that as 75% of patients do not show any symptoms of the virus, they are treated at home by their family doctors, which, in turn, increases their responsibility multi-fold. He said the late referral to hospitals makes it difficult to treat them, thus increasing the fatality rate. “If the patients are treated well in home isolation with appropriate management, the mortality rate can come down significantly,” said Thackeray. The webinar, Managing Covid-19 in Primary Care, was organized by OneMD and was attended by state task force members Dr. Sanjay Oak, Dr. Shashank Joshi, and Dr. Rahul Pandit; Director of Directorate of Medical Education and Research Dr. TP Lahane and Dr. Ashish Bhumkar. “A family doctor plays an important role while treating a Covid-19 patient at home as he is monitoring his oxygen level, treating comorbidities, and guiding him on medicines. The doctor needs to take a call on admitting the patient to the hospital at the appropriate time. Maintaining the sugar level during infection is also a major task before the family doctor. If this management is done properly, it may help reduce the fatalities,” said Thackeray.

He also urged the family doctors to extend their services by serving at the nearest Covid care centers. “This will not only be a service to society but will also give relief to patients as they are being treated by their own doctor. There is a challenge of keeping monsoon-related diseases such as dengue, malaria, leptospirosis in control amid the pandemic. I have directed the state machinery to increase rapid antigen testing so that such diseases can be contained,” he said. Doctors from the task force insisted on the reasonable use of drugs, including steroids and even oxygen. “Patients tend to avoid Covid-19 tests for obvious reasons, but there is no alternative to RT-PCR test. Six-minute tests and breathlessness among patients could help doctors in the early diagnosis of the infection. It has also been observed that CT scans are being done unnecessarily and their scores are given undue importance. Doctors should also treat oxygen as a drug, ensuring its rational use at clinics and primary health centres and hospitals,” said Dr. Oak.