To tackle the worst ever dengue outbreak in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government has issued order to all Government hospitals to postpone critical surgeries in order to tackle the rush of dengue patients.
According to doctors in a Government hospital, many patients, who are visiting the hospitals for major surgeries, have been asked to go home and have been given new dates as there is acute shortage of beds and medical staff to manage operation theaters.
In order to accommodate rising numbers of dengue patients, the Delhi Government has decided to immediately increase 795 beds in 48 new private hospitals and nursing homes on a temporary basis by granting them provisional registration certificates for three months, said a senior official in the health department.
All the Government and private hospitals are overburdened with the dengue patients. This has created the shortage of bed and space in all the hospital across the city. Hospitals such as Guru Teg Bahadur, lal Bahadur Shastri, Bara Hindu Rao, Maharishi Valmiki, lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan, RMl, DR BR Ambedkar have put major surgeries on hold.
Health Minister Satyendra Jain, issued the order which stated, "The concerned hospital authority will have to ensure that only medically sick patients and fever cases suspected of having Dengue and its complications are admitted in the hospitals."
The order issued by the Health Minister said, "The keeper of the hospital has to ensure that there is adequate number of required manpower, equipment and other accessories are stocked and available to take care of admitted patients."
The Health Minister also released the free bed occupancy data which says that with over 633 free beds, about 656 beds have been occupied by the patients till date.
"The Government is willing to take help from all concerned quarters in dealing with the dengue situation in Delhi and this facility extended to new private hospitals is beneficial for them as well as for people" said the Health Minister.
The tariff of these temporary beds will be 50 per cent less than the respective hospital's specified charges for the lowest category of economy category patients, stated the orders.
According to the orders, none of the hospitals granted temporary registration will conduct any OT and labour Room procedures till these are inspected by the competent licensing authorities and are granted regular clearance.
With Government hospitals under stress, many patients suffering from other ailments are facing tough time. The case in point is of Deepak Kumar, 34, a father of five-year-old son. He is struggling hard to get the kidney surgery for his son, according to sources. From the past fifteen days, Deepak is trying hard to get date from the doctors at lNJP hospital but with little success. "Doctors here are not confirming the date for the surgery of my child and have asked me to wait for some time," said Deepak.
Another such patient, Ramlal, 55, at Hindu Rao Hospital is also in the wait list who urgently needs cardio treatment. He said, "Doctors have advised me heart surgery which has been post postponed for 10 days."
Meanwhile, a doctor at RMl said, "At present our top priority is to save the dengue patients. We have shortage of medical staff here, as the number of patients is increasing every day. We are holding some surgical cases, which will be performed in the coming days."