Delhi govt asks hospitals to add beds as dengue cases rise

With a spurt in dengue cases, the Delhi government today asked all hospitals and nursing homes here to add up to 20 per cent extra beds and ordered them not to deny admission to patients suffering from the vector-borne disease.
Hospitals and nursing homes will get permission for increasing their bed strength on the condition that these beds will be used only for admitting fever and dengue patients, a senior official said in a statement.
To tackle dengue outbreak, the government said it has also decided to restrict the sale of drugs like "Aspirin, Ibuprofen and Diclofenac" group of medicines which cause "destruction of platelets" in human blood. These will now be sold strictly against prescription by a registered medical practitioner.

The move is being seen as part of the preparation to deal with the rising dengue cases as according to a municipal report, 119 such cases have been reported in Delhi this season, with 91 of these recorded in last month alone.
"To keep Dengue treatment affordable, the government has put a ceiling on NSI Ag (Elisa based) and Elisa MAC tests at Rs 600 and for platelet count at Rs 50. Any private hospital or lab which charges more than the fixed ceiling price for dengue testing and platelet count will face action," the official said.
The government is also aiming to increase the number of dedicated fever clinics from 55 last year to 355. All hospitals have been advised to have "fever corners" which will function round-the-clock.

The medical and paramedical staff at these clinics have been sensitised about prevention and treatment of dengue.