The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has said that it will discontinue COVID-19 testing prior to inpatient hospitalisation, and minor surgical procedures of asymptomatic patients. The medical institute said that this has been done in accordance with the current ICMR guidelines.
“In accordance with current ICMR's national guidelines, it has been decided to discontinue with routine COVID-19 testing prior to inpatient hospitalisations (regular as well as day care) and also prior to any minor or major surgical/interventional/non- interventional procedures, and imaging in clinically asymptomatic patients, including OPD/emergency patients as well as those patients who were earlier COVID-19 positive and have since recovered and transferred to the parents department's inpatient ward for continued treatment,” it said.
AIIMS asked the chief of all centres, heads of all clinical and diagnostic departments, and chief nursing offices to bring it to the notice of all faculty, resident doctors, technical staff and nursing staff accordingly that the testing routing is no longer required before inpatient hospitalisation and for any invasive and non-invasive procedures.
This comes as the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), last week, decided to reopen in-person classes and lifted more restrictions, including running gyms and spas, as COVID cases start to reduce.
Last week AIIMS announced that routine inpatient admissions including elective surgeries will resume in the hospital with immediate effect. Earlier in January, the institute had temporarily stopped all routine patient admissions, procedures and non-essential surgeries due to the rise in coronavirus cases in the national capital.
Also read: Routine elective surgeries to resume at Delhi's AIIMS with immediate effect