Hospitals to take in more docs,staff to tackle dengue outbreak

Hospitals across the capital continued to wilt under huge rush of dengue patients as an embattled Delhi Government directed all medical institutions to urgently increase bed capacity and employ more doctors and nurses to deal with the situation.
Chaos, unhygienic conditions and in some government hospitals, three patients were cramped on one bed due to unavailability of beds.
A day after warning private hospitals of strict punitive action including cancellation of license if they refuse treatment to dengue patients, the government issued a "blanket order" empowering hospitals run by it to recruit more doctors and nursing staff.
As hospitals and nursing homes across Delhi were inundated with patients, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain directed private hospitals to increase their bed capacity by 10-20 per cent as soon as possible to treat patients affected by the mosquito-borne disease.

The Minister said more dengue testing kits are being procured and private hospitals have been asked not to charge more than Rs 600 for the test which is free in government facilities.
There were long queues at Out Patient Departments and 'fever clinics', opened to treat dengue patients at government-run hospitals.

Currently, the total bed capacity of city hospitals is around 50,000 which include 10,000 beds in Delhi Government-run hospitals and 20,000 in private hospitals. The hospitals run by municipal corporations and Centre have a capacity of 10,000 beds each.
"Private hospitals have been asked to increase capacity by 10 to 20 per cent. Even a rise of 2,500 in the number of beds in private hospitals would be a big jump," Jain said, adding Government-run facilities have been ordered to increase beds by 1,000 by Sunday.

He said all the hospitals have been told to also use the beds exclusively kept for disasters.
"A blanket order has been issued giving hospitals powers to buy more beds, employ more doctors, nurses and paramedic staff depending on their requirement. All arrangements have been made to ensure best possible treatment to dengue patients," he said.
So far 11 people have died of dengue and over 1,900 have been affected by it. There has been widespread outrage in the city after Avinash Rout, a 7-year-old, and 6-year-old Aman Sharma died of dengue last week after allegedly being denied treatment by private hospitals. Avinash's parents committed suicide following his death.