State hospitals ill-prepared to tackle swine flu rush

Chandigarh,Though the dreaded swine flu virus continues to spread its tentacles in Punjab, confusion prevails over diagnosis and treatment of the disease allegedly because of lack of facilities.Also, the number of confirmed cases today rose to 26 from 15 a day earlier whereas the count of the suspected patients went up to 67. The Punjab government has confirmed seven deaths so far, but sources said the toll could be higher as the deaths of the suspected patients were not included in this figure.“Short” of testing kits, the PGI, Chandigarh, has reportedly returned two samples of suspected swine flu patients back to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Amritsar.Dr Deepak Bhatia from the Punjab Health Department’s surveillance office, however, said the kits had arrived at the PGI, and that the tests were being conducted as routine. He said a lab set up at Government Medical College, Amritsar, too had started testing samples.But sources said that despite being inaugurated 10 months ago, the lab was not fully prepared to conduct tests. The samples were, thus, either sent to the PGI or to hospitals in New Delhi.

The development belies Punjab Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani’s claims that the state was ready to tackle the swine flu challenge.A patient said the government should have prepared for the challenge much in advance as it had faced the problem last year as well.In Ludhiana, the Civil Hospital reportedly is bereft of facilities to handle the disease. As a result, all the seven cases reported so far in the city were undergoing treatment at private hospitals.Senior Medical Officer Dr Parwinderpal Singh Sidhu admitted that the Civil Hospital was “not fully equipped to cater to swine flu patients of serious nature”.The health authorities have also reportedly discontinued giving Tamiflu tablets to the close contacts of swine flu patients as it was short in supply.Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala, the biggest facility in the district, is also not fully equipped as it lacks a fully prepared isolation ward. The hospital does not even have ventilators, a basic requirement for respiratory cases.

As soon as a a critical case comes to the hospital, it is immediately referred to the PGI, Chandigarh.In Faridkot, one more case of suspected swine flu was reported at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital today, though the arrangements there appeared better than several other hospitals. The patient, a 58-year-old woman of an adjoining village, was under-treatment in an isolated ward.Doctors at the college said they were fully equipped to handle swine flu cases. “We have isolation wards to deal with cases that test positive,” said Dr Kiranjit Kaur