Lock down activities at Aravind-Chennai

Uncertainty still persists in Chennai as the district accounts for over half of the COVID-19 cases in the state. Let’s hear from Aravind-Chennai how it prepares itself to meet the greatest challenge of our time.

While India and the world are grappling with the pandemic, we at Aravind, Chennai are making efforts to provide a safe environment for our patients and staff. With lockdown 3.0 coming to a close and the fourth phase starting, the uncertainty still persists in Chennai where Koyambedu market emerged a ‘super spreader’ and accounts for almost half of the COVID-19 positive cases in the state. Being a part of the Aravind Eye Care System family with regular meetings of the task force that included leadership across all hospitals is a huge positive that gave ample opportunities to learn and share while we developed guidelines.

Being a relatively newer hospital that was just starting to see four digit outpatients, the pandemic surfaced the strength of the team. While the young team had to relearn the new normal aspects of safety and care giving, we embarked on a journey of strength and camaraderie. Regular training, monitoring and audits are useful to ensure the team was well oriented and followed protocols. The trickling OP gave the team time to establish new protocols and standard of care, while people also had time to sit back and explore our innate passion. Ranging from outdoor and indoor games, glass painting, gardening, poster making, artwork, cooking, dance and music both within the campus and within their homes we started seeing the life people had beyond ophthalmology.

We had our own challenges along the way, including two of the staff on campus contracting chicken pox. Once these staff were isolated and treated, the rest of the team rose to the occasion to completely clean and fumigate their living space, this combined with vaccination of those who had not previously been vaccinated helped control the spread of the infection. With over 80% of the staff (and almost all the MLOPs) staying on campus, priority was to ensure that they were safe and healthy while being engaged and energized. Our managers and senior housekeepers had an immense role to play in making this happen. While some departments functioned with only a fraction of the staff, some others like the cleaning staff showed up as a team using the transportation provided by the hospital.

Going forward as we embark on regular patient care, we look forward to continue to provide a safe environment for patients and staff by streamlining patient flow, conducting mock drills, following the new norms and creating awareness.

And while we do all this, to continue to preserve empathy and compassion!