Vikarabad has no beds for dengue hit

Hyderabad: Of the 300 patients who came to the privately-run Crawford Memorial Hospital in Vikarabad on Thursday, 50 were diagnosed with dengue. In the last two days, 80 patients in the hospital have been confirmed with dengue, further exposing the epidemic sweeping the state.

Patients are coming in from villages from around a 30 km to 40 km radius of the hospital, because district government hospitals are full and refusing to take any more patients. The age group of patients is from six months to 60 years. Most of the other patients are suffering from viral fevers.

G Badri, a resident of Vikarabad, said that a meeting of senior officials from the health and police departments was held on Wednesday to discuss the rush. “It was decided to send patients to private hospitals in Vikarabad. Since this hospital has 60 beds, most of the patients were sent here today,” he said.

The hospital set up umbrellas in the compound and gave IV fluids to patients for whom beds could not be found outdoors.

Police was stationed in the hospital on account of the large crowd, as patients had started streaming in from early morning.

A doctor at the hospital said, “We doctors have not even had time to have lunch. Patients have been coming in, some with very high fever. If there is no improvement by tomorrow morning, we would have to refer critical patients to hospitals in Hyderabad,” he said.

The hospital has accommodated 100 patients, even though it has only 60 beds.

The hospital administration said that extra doctors have been called in for the night shift to attend to more cases.