Hyderabad: H1N1 treatment takes a toll on family budget

Hyderabad: Complicated cases of swine flu (H1N1) are placing a huge financial burden on families who are paying lakhs for treatment in intensive care units of hospitals in the city. Swine flu complications are pneumonia and failure of the heart and lungs, which require ventilator support and also extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). 

Most cases are treated in private hospitals, where costs are high, even though government hospitals have the facilities. In 2016, more than 20 patients had to be put on ECMO and the recovery rate was only one per cent, according to sources. 

ECMO is the last resort when all other standard procedures have failed. The cost of this procedure is very high - Rs 1 lakh per day. Not many can afford it. A senior health official in the district medical and health department said that there is no control on the costing as the government does not want to intervene. “Whenever we meet the relatives of the patient we counsel them to go to Gandhi Hospital where treatment is free, but they are unwilling.” 

In a recent case in the city, an 18 month old baby girl with swine flu developed secondary pneumonia. The family has spent Rs 5 lakh on her treatment and the child is yet to recover.

Mujtaba Hasan Askari, who is helping this family, says, “The Institute of Preventive Medicine charges Rs 3,500 for a swine flu test from private hospitals. They (the private hospitals) in turn charge patients from Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000. There is no control or check.”

The office of the nodal officer in charge of swine flu, Dr K. Manohar, gets many complaints about the high cost of diagnostic tests. This has other serious consequences. Says a senior health officer, “The price is a deterrent so all samples are not sent for testing; only the suspected cases are sent for testing.”

Critical cases require adequate facilities, good quality of care and availability of nurses in intensive care units. Dr Farhan Shaikh, senior consultant paediatrician, who is in charge of NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare), says that government hospitals can also qualify for NABH accreditation, as the standard and quality of care has drastically improved. Such accreditation gives public recognition that a healthcare organisation has been assessed and has met certain parameters.   

“The most complicated cases are also tackled here as there is an intensivist, trained critical care nurses, and well-equipped intensive care units. Government hospitals in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have NABH accreditation. Telangana hospitals can be upgraded to that level,” Dr Shaikh says.

With swine flu becoming an annual occurrence, the burden of the disease is growing and it requires a strong public health care system that can provide the best of intensive care.