Baotou medical worker makes NCP control efforts

Suri Lige’s first task in Wuhan was to soothe and triage dozens of patients with the novel coronavirus pneumonia – or NCP – in Wuhan’s first cabin hospital which is located in the city’s Jianghan district, he said.

Being one of the members of Baotou’s second medical team that went to Wuhan, in central Hubei province, he started working with the nursing staff in the cabinet hospital on Feb 6.

Some of the members of Baotou city’s medical team were scheduled to work at the triage desk, while others went to the wards for nursing work.

Suri Lige works at one of the triage stations. This is the place where patients entering the hospital must first pass.

His tasks include asking for patient information, performing blood oxygen saturation tests and arranging for patients who meet the criteria to stay in the cabin hospital.

According to Suri, the cabin hospital mainly serves NCP patients with mild symptoms who are over 18 years old and under 65 years old, with blood oxygen saturation above 93 percent and who live in three districts including Jianghan district.

So far, more than 900 patients are being treated in the cabin hospital. A total of 100 medical workers from all across the country, divided into two batches with each batch consisting of 50 people, have taken charge of the diagnosis and treatment of the patients.

Due to limited medical staff, a doctor and a nurse will serve 20 to 40 patients, giving prescriptions, delivering meals and nucleic acid tests and detections. If the results of three nucleic acid tests are negative, the patient can be discharged from the cabin hospital.

There are several dialects in Wuhan. Suri cannot understand some of the dialects used by patients, so he has to ask several times.

"I understand their mood now and I especially want to make them all happier," he said.

He added that according to the task schedule the working time is six hours and four shifts, but the actual working time is much longer.

"We need to wear protective clothing, handle shifts and with the time it takes to go to and from the hotel, our working time may be more than eight hours a day," he said.

The hotel he stays in hired a chef especially from North China to make dishes for medical workers from the region, like Suri.

Care comes not only from the hotel owner, but also from the Health Commission of Baotou and Inner Mongolia and hospitals in Baotou city.

Suri Lige can speak out about the difficulties he faces in work and daily life in a WeChat group chat and the health commissions and hospitals will make efforts to solve them.