Alleging medical negligence, a lorry driver from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, who was tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, released a video from hospital claiming that he was initially erroneously given a negative report and was discharged. However, the next day, authorities informed him that he had tested positive.
The patient, Sudhakar* (name changed), said that he developed symptoms of COVID-19 after returning from work, and was availing treatment at the Vijayawada Government General Hospital. After 10 days of isolation and subsequent testing, which affirmed that he was negative, Sudhakar was discharged from the hospital.
నీకు కరోనా నెగిటివ్ వచ్చింది ఇంటికి వెళ్ళిపో... మరుసటి రోజు నీకు పాజిటివ్ వచ్చింది... యువకుడి ఆవేదన#Coronavirus #Vijayawada #coronapatient pic.twitter.com/349XwyAL1P
— Tolivelugu Official (@Tolivelugu) April 27, 2020
“They kept me in observation for 10 days. They collected my samples twice and I was sent home when I tested negative. A day later, I was informed that I had tested positive. Thinking about the well-being of my family and our neighbours, I contacted the police and voluntarily got admitted to the hospital. The incident has caused us deep worry. Nobody should face this. My family is suffering a lot due to this. Now even my family will have to go to the hospital [as they may have contracted the disease],” the patient said in the video.
Confirming the incident, Vijayawada Government General Hospital, Superintendent Dr Jagan Mohan said that the patient’s family members have been taken to Pinnamaneni Siddhartha General Hospital for tests.
The Superintendent, however, clarified that the incident was not a case of medical negligence as alleged by the patient, but a failure of the Truenat test, a screening test that has been approved by the ICMR to screen for COVID-19. It was originally used to detect for TB and has been shown to be more efficient than previously used methods for confirming the presence of tuberculosis. With the Truenat test, both testing and reporting can be done on the same day.
“We carried out Truenat tests on the patient because of the overwhelming number of cases. After being tested negative in the test, he was sent home. Later, the Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test revealed that the patient indeed was infected with coronavirus. There is no medical negligence in this,” Dr Jagan Mohan said. He added, “The accuracy of the Truenat tests are 33%, and there is a chance of not detecting all the cases.”
The Superintendent said that the patient was asymptomatic, and as a result, the Truenat test couldn’t detect accurately. Truenat and RT-PCR tests are approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research-- the apex body of formulation, coordination and promotion of medical research in the country.
In the video, the patient also stated that the doctors at the hospital did not give any clarity on the results or precautions to be taken after the test and that though Truenat is just a screening test, he was discharged from the hospital. Responding to this, the Superintendent told TNM that he was sent home as they are recording an overwhelming number of cases and they had to clear the bed for other patients.