Telangana asks hospitals to follow standard treatment protocol

The State government has directed all government and private hospitals in Telangana to adopt and strictly follow standard treatment protocols framed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) while treating Covid positive patients.

Standardised treatment in all hospitals will ensure rational use of available resources like hospital beds, oxygen, ventilators and drugs like Remdesivir. Also, it reduces unnecessary over-prescription by doctors and ensuing panic over their availability in medical shops and hospitals.

“We have directed hospitals to adopt ICMR protocols as they were framed based on patient’s condition and needs, which encourage rational use of available resources,”



Health Minister, Eatala Rajender said. Acknowledging there was an irrational demand for Remdesivir and oxygen, he said, “Not every Covid patient needs them.”

Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao has been closely monitoring the availability of Remdesivir and also interacted with pharma companies involved in manufacturing the drug in the city. The availability of Remdesivir would improve in the coming days, the pharma companies had assured the Chief Minister.

“When Covid cases started to drop last September, major pharma companies stopped manufacturing Remdesivir and it will take some time for them to normalise their production capacities,” Rajender added.