Hospitals run out of rooms

Even money cannot assure dengue patients a room at private hospitals. With over 500 patients admitted in various hospitals, there is no space for more. Rhythma Kaul reports. Dengue decoded

Dengue does not differentiate between the rich and the poor. Even patients with deep pockets are finding it hard to find a private room in most city hospitals. The spurt in dengue cases has left hospitals with hardly any space to accommodate more patients.

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A random check on Monday revealed more than 500 cases of dengue had been admitted in 10 city hospitals.

"Normally, dengue cases start pouring in by the end of August, peak towards September end and start going down by October end, before finally ending in November. But this year abnormally high numbers have been reported during August itself. If these figures are anything to go by, then October seems scary," said Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, director, institute of internal medicine, Max hospital, Saket.

The Out Patient Department (OPD) of internal medicine at Max, Saket, functions from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, and during that time Dr Budhiraja alone sees about 50 suspected dengue cases. "Almost 15 dengue cases need to be hospitalised every day. It's becoming difficult to manage the rush now, and the situation is only going to get worse," he said.

Since the beginning of this year, Max hospitals alone have admitted 535 dengue cases.

Other hospitals in the city such have similar experiences to share. Moolchand Medcity had 35 suspected dengue cases admitted on Monday. Their admission rate is more than 10 people with dengue-like symptoms daily.

Holy Family Hospital, which gets maximum cases from southeast Delhi's Jamia Nagar and adjoining areas, also reported full occupancy with more than 50 dengue cases admitted in the hospital at present. The hospital gets more than 200 suspected cases of dengue each day.

St Stephen's near Tees Hazari, currently has 130 dengue cases admitted. "We have had more than 100 people admitted at any given day, many of these are Delhi University students," said an administrative official in the Hospital, requesting anonymity.

"My 14-year-old son was admitted for dengue at Apollo for 10 days ago, and we saw more than 100 dengue cases every day. You can easily expose the government’s figures by checking the city hospitals. The actual figure may run into thousands," said Satbeer Choudhary, a resident of Sultan Puri.