Thiruvananthapuram: Dengue tests health centres

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sakthidharan Nair who took his wife to Kulasekhram government hospital this week was taken aback to find over 100 fever patients being managed by just one on-duty doctor and an attendant. As anticipated earlier, when the number of IP cases shot up, the dearth in number of nursing staff and doctors became visible and it has derailed treatment of dengue patients. Delayed interventions had claimed several lives in the district including that of Usha Kumari, 58 of Kilimanoor on Thursday. As per senior doctors, the numbers of junior doctors who go into the field was on the lower side and this affects the dengue prevention drives. “The OP cases in our hospital that includes all kind of fever were around 300 today. All of our 30 beds are occupied. We have only six staffers including those from NRHM. This won’t be enough,” said a doctor at Community Health Centre at coastal area.

The National Health Mission has opened fever clinics at 15 Primary Health Centres (PHC) in capital. Most of them were full. “By April itself we ran out of beds and now even the floor of hospitals has been occupied. The dengue patients need to be primarily treated with just a drip. In emergency situations they are administered platelets at Taluk-General Hospital,” said the Medical Officer at another CHC.

On Thursday, the medical college appointed around 60 nursing assistants, seven lab technicians. Similarly, eight nursing assistants were provided to the SAT Hospital. However, the PHCs and CHCs have not received massive reinforcement. “The prime issue was a poor pre-monsoon drive. All hell has broken loose and let’s just hope this ends sometime soon,” an health official said.