Health team visits Varanasi: Make test kits available for Elisa at govt hosps, CMO told

The team visited three government hospitals of Varanasi to assess the situation in view of the increasing number of fever patients in the district

A three-member team of medical experts which visited three government hospitals of Varanasi to assess the situation in view of the increasing number of fever patients in the district has directed that kits for Elisa test like scrub typhus, leptospirosis, chikungunya etc be made available at SSPG Divisional Hospital, Kabir Chaura and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay District Hospital, Pandeypur.

The expert medical team addressing the media in Varanasi on Tuesday. (HT Photo)

The team – including Dr KN Tiwari, director (communicable diseases), Dr Vikasendu Aggarwal, state surveillance officer and Dr Pankaj Guma, physician, Lokbandhu Rajbandhu Hospital, Lucknow – visited Varanasi on October 2 and 3, and gave its instructions to chief medical officer (CMO) Varanasi, Dr Sandip Chaudhary.

Dr Chaudhary said that the team visited Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Hospital till late night on October 2 and Lal Bahadur Shastri Joint Hospital, Ramnagar and Shri Shiv Prasad Gupta Divisional Hospital, Kabirchaura on October 3 to get information about the condition of the patients admitted there. They also reviewed the available testing and treatment facilities thoroughly.

Later, Dr KN Tiwari and Dr Vikasendu Aggarwal briefed the media.

Dr Tiwari said that instructions have been given to the chief medical officer to provide two additional staff nurses each from the urban health centres to the three district hospitals until the number of fever patients decreases.

Team observations & recommendations

• Air conditioning has been arranged in the emergency and many IPD wards in the three hospitals visited.

• Due to various innovations, availability of facilities and improvement in the quality of treatment, the number of patients admitted in hospitals of various levels has increased.

Recommendation of the state level team -

• On assessing the condition of the patients admitted in all the hospitals, it was found that many patients were completely healthy and able to walk, they did not even have fever. These patients were admitted to the hospital only due to fear of platelet deficiency. Chief medical superintendents in all hospitals were instructed that such patients can be discharged after proper counseling and consultation.

•It was also directed that promotional material be displayed at various places in hospitals to provide information about dengue and other viral diseases to the patients so that they do not get unnecessarily scared.

• It was also directed that all hospitals ensure that protocols for admission and discharge of patients for dengue and other viral diseases are followed in OPD, IPD and emergency blocks.

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Innovations

Many types of innovations are also being made for the treatment of patients in all the hospitals, such as availability of ECG facility, availability of 24-hour pathology testing facility, patients can be referred to all levels of hospitals through Lab Mitra application - rural and urban community health centers. Providing pathology test reports from district and divisional level hospitals through SMS, etc.