A day after the first dengue death was reported in the Capital, the Health Department of the Delhi Government has instructed medical superintendents and chief medical officers of all city hospitals to treat dengue cases as “emergency patient”.
Senior officials of the Health Department said that in most of the cases, it was found that adequate care of dengue patients was not being taken and Government hospitals mostly referred the patients to private hospitals citing lack of beds. “As a result, we have instructed all the medical superintendents and the chief medical officers to admit and treat dengue patients immediately,” he added.
Dr Charan Singh, nodal officer (appointed to cater to dengue cases) said, “As the incidence of dengue is on the rise since two months, we
have asked all hospital superintendents and chief medical officers to segregate 10 beds in each hospital. They have also been asked to monitor with the doctors and provide the patients’ feedback to the Health Department on a weekly basis.”
Meanwhile, expressing concern over the incidence of 71 dengue cases across the Capital this week alone, Delhi Health Minister Dr AK Walia on Friday warned that any dereliction of duty in effectively implementing anti-dengue measures would lead to strict disciplinary action against the defaulting officials. He said that it is a matter of concern that as compared to 13 in 2012 and 84 in 2011, this year 226 cases of dengue have been reported in Delhi. He stressed that the officials have to exercise caution and remain on high alert during the next two months as the trend indicates rise in incidence of dengue.
Dr Walia directed the Municipal Corporations to carry out domestic and field anti-mosquito drives on weekends. He further directed to put in service two hand-operated fogging machines in each of the 272 Municipal Wards as well as one vehicle-mounted fogging machine in each of the 12 zones.