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Hospitals add more beds to wards as dengue rages in Lucknow
At Lok Bandhu Raj Narayan Hospital here, the administration has had to add beds to dengue wards to make space for the number of patients that they are getting. “We have extended the dengue ward by adding 10 more beds, given that our 12-bed ward was proving inadequate for the patients’ volume,” said Lok Bandhu Hospital director Dr. Suresh Kaushal.
LUCKNOW: The number of active dengue patients increases by the day at a rate of approximately 100 every two days, and the same surge is seen in cases of malaria and chikungunya, which are also seeing an upward spike, albeit slower. Hence, government hospitals in the state capital are forced to add beds to their reserved wards to accommodate indoor patients .
At Lok Bandhu Raj Narayan Hospital here, the administration has had to add beds to dengue wards to make space for the number of patients that they are getting. “We have extended the dengue ward by adding 10 more beds, given that our 12-bed ward was proving inadequate for the patients’ volume,” said Lok Bandhu Hospital director Dr. Suresh Kaushal. “Right now we have 14 patients in our dengue ward. All of them were diagnosed elsewhere and were referred here, therefore we have made the decision to add 10 more beds.”
He said, “We are prepared to expand our dengue reserved ward with 20 to 25 beds, and we may have to pretty soon. Depending on admissions over the next few days, we will add still more beds.” Six new active cases of dengue were detected at Lok Bandhu Hospital as of Thursday morning. “We are experiencing an overflow, as dengue patients must be kept under observation for five to seven days before being discharged,” he informed.
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (Civil) Hospital is also working with a nearly full dengue ward which is equipped with 24 beds.
Balrampur Hospital too has had to accommodate more patients than originally planned, informed Dr. N.B. Singh, chief medical superintendent at the hospital. “We had prepared our dengue ward with 22 beds, but have since added first six, then seven beds to the ward. Right now our dengue ward is 35-bed strong,” he said. “As of this morning (Thursday), we have 20 dengue active patients in our special ward and we are expecting the evening count to rise.”
Dr Singh said, “The number of cases detected in the OPD (out patient department) is also steadily rising, as we are conducting card tests as well as ELISA tests ,” he said. Both the card test and the ELISA test are blood tests to check for dengue virus, although ELISA requires more time than the card test, which is a rapid test and gives a result in 20 minutes, as opposed to the 4 hours of the ELISA.
At King George Medical University, currently 72 patients are admitted in the medical wards of the department of medicine. “Around 80% of these patients are dengue positive and 20% are malaria positive,” said Dr. K.K. Singh, faculty of general surgery, KGMU. “Everyday, we get about 50-70 blood samples in the OPD, of which at least 10-12 turn out to be positive.”
Dr. Singh further said that it was important for patients to be kept under observation for close to a week, to ensure that the platelet count rises to normal and stabilises, which takes three to four days on its own.
While KGMU, Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (Civil) Hospital here have not had to add beds to their wards, authorities agree that the rising cases are a cause of concern for the doctors. “We have to accommodate as many patients as we can and we are making efforts to prepare ourselves to expand our wards should the need arise and keep an eye on the medicine stock to ensure that all patients with feverish symptoms be tested in our OPD,” said Dr NB Singh.
