TMCnet News
Hospitals lost in flu quagmire(The Times of India Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)NEW DELHI: Despite the health minister's claims to the contrary, city hospitals are yet to wake up to the threat of bird flu. Even till Tuesday evening, doctors at most hospitals seemed clueless on what precautions and protocols to follow in case the flu hits Delhi. At Safdarjung Hospital, a senior official said: "Parliament is in session and when that happens, most of our senior staff becomes busy with preparing answers to Parliament questions. So we haven't issued any guidelines to the doctors. As it is, there is no case in Delhi so far." It was the same story at most of the hospitals shortlisted for the admission and treatment of bird flu patients. This despite Delhi health minister Yoganand Shastri announcing that a 10-bed ward at AIIMS and a 20-bed ward at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in Hari Nagar has been set up to battle any suspected cases. He also said that the city now had three million doses of the anti-flu medicine Tamiflu. A senior doctor at the casualty in DDU, however, said: "We have not been told anything about any ward having been created for bird flu. We don't have any stocks of Tamiflu, nor have we received any special masks or gloves which we can use in case we have to handle suspected cases." At the casualty in Hindu Rao Hospital, a senior doctor said: "We don't know if the hospital is supposed to have any Tamiflu. We haven't been told if we should notify the suspected cases, but since there are no cases right now, there's no need to panic." A doctor at Safdarjung added: "It's not as if we can set aside any beds or ventilators for such patients because in any case, we are always running short of them. There are three patients on each bed and when it comes to ventilators, the demand is always more than the supply." At Swami Dayanand Hospital in Shahdara which had been short-listed by the MCD on Monday to handle suspected cases, a senior doctor said: "We were expecting some communication today, but there were no instructions till evening. We will use our common sense should there be any cases." At Lok Nayak Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College, too, the responses were the same. |