Measuring impact of Covid-19 pandemic at a teaching hospital in north India

Introduction: Government runs teaching hospitals to impart a high-quality medical education to budding medicos and paramedical students in training. The experiences these trainees at various tenure positions get then and there shape their worldview for rest of the life and have an indelible impression. The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted all the routines at the hospitals around the world-including ours- and we make an attempt to measure it in one dimension in this study. Materials and Methods: We obtained attendance data of patients at out patient department and in patient department of our hospital. During the pandemic for a certain duration offline (physical) registrations were closed and they were attended only by online ones. Hence that data (actually a part of it) got captured electronically and we analyzed it to get an idea of the traversed course of the scourge. Results: When the pandemic surged during the spring and summer of 2021, our hospital was turned into a Covid facility. Hence average routine attendance of patients got reduced to a significant extent, elective surgeries/ interventions and procedures were postponed and this data is reflected in an electronic system, perhaps making a long-lasting effect on the budding trainees. This fact needs to be realized so as to take appropriate action. Conclusion: We need to realize that the effects of the viral communicable disease may be enduring, not only for the infected patients and their families but also for those who learn on those patients. Therefore, the transmissible diseases disabled not only our society, economy, and health care services when they ascended but pedagogy too. Online learning came to rescue but only up to a certain extent and with several caveats and limitations.