Institutions developing a sustainable model during tough, challenging Covid Times

A case study on Bhopal based People’s Group which is now an active Covid care centre and has been able to conduct a smooth functioning of Health care and Educational services during pandemic.
When the world is dooming the least you can do is prepare, face, fight, survive and continue to encourage the positivity. People’s Group at Bhopal which incepted with the motive of Nurturing Humanity through Health & Educational Excellence saw the pandemic as the state of emergence and took it as a duty to be of service at such times both in regard of Health and education.
Both Educational institutions and Hospitals play an integral role in the public health response to pandemics. People’s Group took it in stride to face the pandemic with preparedness in hospitals to help the patients in times of severe crisis in health services all through the city of Bhopal and neighbouring districts. Along with this a huge responsibility for the group was to not compromise with the careers of thousands of students who study in more than 10 institutes of People’s University and school.
Chairman of the group, Suresh N Vijaywargia and  Trustee and Director, People’s Group Megha Vijaywargia tried to ensure that the panic can be nullified amongst the staff and students so that effective and smooth functioning of teaching, learning and availing health care services can take place.
 

The key measures taken by People’s Group to set up an active Covid care centre  

• A Comprehensive COVID Care facility has been set up at People’s Hospital, Bhopal with 300 beds dedicated for Covid-19 patients (35 beds ICU, 265 beds general).
• Doctors and medical staff are present round the clock to treat patients.
• It has facilities including Intensive Care Units, Surgery, and ventilator support and can even handle child birth cases of COVID-infected pregnant women. 
• As per the AIIMS’ protocol, adequate beverages, a balanced diet, recommended doses of vitamins A, D, C and zinc is being given to patients admitted to People’s Hospitals.
• There are recreation rooms with carom boards and televisions to help patients pass the time.  
• A dedicated Basic Life Support Ambulance (BLSA) equipped with sufficient oxygen support on 24x7 basis, for ensuring safe transport
• The hospital has separate areas for suspect and confirmed cases.  
• Proper safe guarding of the campus , safety gears for the front line staff who is treating active Covid – 19 patients was ensured at the earliest.
• The provision and correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, gowns, masks and face shields was introduced as a mandate for all health care workers for an effective measure to reduce the possibility of transmission.
• Sanitization of the huge units were a task but was made an everyday practice to ensure the safety of every single person present in the units.
• A variety of other strategies was employed by all units of People’s Hospitals with immediate effect to reduce infection exposure and staff anxiety, including: creating frontline ‘flu teams’ that dealt exclusively with influenza patients thereby reducing contact for other staff, thermal scanning and sanitizer usage was made a mandate.
• Clean water and facilities for ventilation, hand hygiene and isolation of infected patients, and for storage of sterile supplies was ensured along with other hospital activities and units, such as waste management, laboratory services, pharmacy, occupational health, and so on was ensured  
• Focus on medical waste disposal was increased so the chances of any kind of spread can be reduced.

No patient turned down, help given to district administration as frontline warriors

• Many hospitals refused to treat patients ranging from severe to normal sickness due to fear of corona virus infection but People's Hospital, Bhanpur remained busy serving patients during the entire lockdown as well. Not only did the OPD service continue in the hospital, but emergency services also continued for 24 hours at the Super Specialty Care of People's Hospital.

• Sampling of corona virus was a very deadly, difficult, and challenging task. But the teams of People’s Hospital and Medical College have faced this almost every day since the pandemic broke out in India. Despite the non-cooperative attitude of people, the teams did not give up. Regardless of heat and the baggage of PPE kit, various teams of people’s hospital went to the street and gathered samples

• Not only this, the team of People's Hospital, Bhanpur also contributed to the Bhopal team of IMA (Indian Medical Association) in the health test of the migrant workers displaced due to the lockdown who were on their way back from Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Education during Covid times
People’s University, Bhopal, a NAAC accredited university which has created a niche in professional and medical education decided that the academic quality was not to be compromised on, even during the lockdown.
Sometime in the second week of March, state governments across the country began shutting down schools and colleges temporarily as a measure to contain the spread of the novel corona virus.
It’s close to 6 months and there is no certainty when they will reopen. As the days pass by with no immediate solution to stop the outbreak of Covid-19, People’s University developed a novel approach considering technology has the potential to achieve universal quality education and improve learning outcomes.

• Online education system for all institutions was brought in place for thousands of students 
• Faculties and Teachers galvanized as an army of digital volunteers tasked with sharing the information on their devices to students with access to technology. To reach those low-tech students, teachers used voice messages, text messages, and phone calls. For high-tech students (i.e. with smartphones), teachers sent longer videos and used WhatsApp groups for discussions.
• Online education was conducted in two ways. The first is through the use of recorded classes, which, when opened out to public through various mediums. The second one is via live online classes conducted as webinars, or zoom sessions.

 “In this time of crisis, a well-rounded and effective educational practice was needed for the capacity-building of young minds and we could not let time pass and impart no education to the students who have placed their valued future in our hands. We decided to first train our faculty and teachers and then asked them to effectively give lessons to students making use of various virtual platforms. It’s the new normal and it will develop skills that will drive their employability, productivity, health, and well-being in the decades to come, and ensure the overall progress of India. Needless to say, the pandemic has transformed the centuries-old, chalk–talk teaching model to one driven by technology”, said the trustee and Director , Megha Vijaywargia.
“During corona pandemic lockdown period online teaching was realized as the new reality.  People’s University devised its own online study modules incorporating subject knowledge and making them engaging, flexible and high on quality for students. Teachers, students and parents are all grappling with this radical transition from the blackboard and smart boards to virtual classes. It has been a matter of pride to watch our teaching faculty adapt and adopt this new way of teaching to provide an enhanced learning experience to the students with their real time interactions, videos, worksheets, assignments and assessments. As educators there is much more to learn and explore about online teaching but as we do that we can ensure that learning continues”, said Dr.Rajesh Kapur, Vice-Chancellor, People’s University