With increase in the number of dengue cases in the Capital, Government hospitals in Delhi are facing acute shortage of beds. Patients suffering from dengue are now being referred to other hospitals.
Sources at lok Nayak Hospital said that there are around 100 beds in the dengue ward and the number of patients filtering in everyday is over 150.
A senior official of the hospital said, “Even after augmenting hospital resources, we still have to refer around 100 cases to other hospitals due to shortage of beds. Such is the crisis that two patients have to be accommodated on one bed.” The authorities at AIIMS said although they have 200 beds at the emergency ward, they still refer around 120 dengue patients to other hospitals on a daily basis since there is no space for additional beds.
Meanwhile, a number of private city hospitals have started supplementing their infrastructure to handle rising cases of dengue. As the number of dengue patients is increasing by the day, many hospitals have created special wards and buffered their number of beds.
A total of 466 cases have been reported this year till September 15 with 304 being reported in September alone. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had 128 confirmed dengue cases in the past three months. Besides, 225 were tested positive at the OPD in the same period.
“A special ward has been created for dengue patients, but the cases have risen in the last few days and many patients are being turned down,” authorities said.
Dr Rajpal, medical superintendent, GTB Hospital, informed that they are getting 25-30 patients daily and they too, have created a special ward and added 75 more beds to nurse dengue patients.
Deen Dayal Upadhayay Hospital has added 30 beds. As per Municipal Corporation officials, 234 cases were reported from the North, 136 from the South, 49 from the East and 47 cases were reported from regions outside the jurisdiction of the MCD. The MCD officials said that 19 cases of dengue were reported last year, 131 in 2011 and 1,933 cases in 2010.