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Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/10705/hospitals-spar-over-h1n1-patients.html
RGICD refuses to admit four cases referred by Victoria
Hospitals spar over H1N1 patients
Poornima Nataraj, Bangalore, DH News Service:
Two premier city hospitals are at loggerheads over treatment to patients who have tested positive for H1N1, the ?swine? flu virus.
While doctors assigned to duty at the swine flu ward in Victoria Hospital were wary of admitting people suspected to have the virus on the ground that they would expose other patients and visitors to the contagious disease, the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) has refused to admit patients referred by Victoria Hospital. Deccan Herald has learnt that on Friday doctors at Victoria referred four patients, who they were treating, to RGICD on the ground that there were chances of other patients and visitors contracting the contagious disease.
Risk factor
State government sources said it would be risky on the part of Victoria to continue to expose other patients and their bystanders to the flu as they would be in close proximity to the four who have tested positive.
?Victoria Hospital does not have a separate isolation ward for such contagious diseases.
Besides, the patient inflow is quite heavy,? a source explained.
But RGICD had its own rationale behind its refusal to admit the four referred H1N1 positive patients. RGICD Director Dr Shashidhar Buggi confirmed that doctors at Victoria had approached him before taking a decision to shift the patients to his hospital.
?When the patients were already admitted to Victoria, there was no justification for their admission to RGICD. I have no idea why they wanted to move the four (patients) here,? Dr Buggi said.
He informed that doctors and other medical staff at the RGICD Swine flu ward were working working round-the-clock and have can ?handle any number? of patients.
?We have handled and treated as many as 23 on a single day,? Dr Buggi said.
Owing to the large number of patient admission in Victoria, there was a certain degree of resistance on the part of doctors there to provide medical attention to those suspected of carrying the virus as well as those who have tested positive.
Separate ward
A separate ward at Victoria, sources said, was renovated to set up the Swine flu ward.
Even as the first patient voluntarily visited Victoria, doctors were unaware of the protocol in treating suspected cases and were not prepared to receive them.
Victoria doctors apparently had little knowledge of how to extract throat swabs from patients.
RGICD was consulted for providing rudimentary training procedures pertaining to extracting samples to Victoria doctors.
Clarifying the status of the Swine Flu ward, Victoria Medical Superintendent Dr B G Tilak said that initially there was a problem to create space as the hospital did not have a dedicated isolation ward for contagious diseases.
He said, ?We encountered a problem in accommodating patients as we had to renovate the place and the cost was borne by the hospital, unlike RGICD, which gets aid from the Centre?.
Dr Tilak further added that doctors in his hospital were ?capable enough? in handling H1N1 Flu patients. He, however, insisted that no further admissions will be entertained till the four positive patients completed their quarantine period
One more tests positive in City
One more patient was tested positive with H1N1 Influenza in Bangalore on Sunday, DHNS reports. A 62-year-old man, who arrived from Atlanta landed at the Bengaluru International Airport on June 17, voluntarily visited Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, where his throat swabs were tested positive with Flu.
RGICD refuses to admit four cases referred by Victoria
Hospitals spar over H1N1 patients
Poornima Nataraj, Bangalore, DH News Service:
Two premier city hospitals are at loggerheads over treatment to patients who have tested positive for H1N1, the ?swine? flu virus.
While doctors assigned to duty at the swine flu ward in Victoria Hospital were wary of admitting people suspected to have the virus on the ground that they would expose other patients and visitors to the contagious disease, the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) has refused to admit patients referred by Victoria Hospital. Deccan Herald has learnt that on Friday doctors at Victoria referred four patients, who they were treating, to RGICD on the ground that there were chances of other patients and visitors contracting the contagious disease.
Risk factor
State government sources said it would be risky on the part of Victoria to continue to expose other patients and their bystanders to the flu as they would be in close proximity to the four who have tested positive.
?Victoria Hospital does not have a separate isolation ward for such contagious diseases.
Besides, the patient inflow is quite heavy,? a source explained.
But RGICD had its own rationale behind its refusal to admit the four referred H1N1 positive patients. RGICD Director Dr Shashidhar Buggi confirmed that doctors at Victoria had approached him before taking a decision to shift the patients to his hospital.
?When the patients were already admitted to Victoria, there was no justification for their admission to RGICD. I have no idea why they wanted to move the four (patients) here,? Dr Buggi said.
He informed that doctors and other medical staff at the RGICD Swine flu ward were working working round-the-clock and have can ?handle any number? of patients.
?We have handled and treated as many as 23 on a single day,? Dr Buggi said.
Owing to the large number of patient admission in Victoria, there was a certain degree of resistance on the part of doctors there to provide medical attention to those suspected of carrying the virus as well as those who have tested positive.
Separate ward
A separate ward at Victoria, sources said, was renovated to set up the Swine flu ward.
Even as the first patient voluntarily visited Victoria, doctors were unaware of the protocol in treating suspected cases and were not prepared to receive them.
Victoria doctors apparently had little knowledge of how to extract throat swabs from patients.
RGICD was consulted for providing rudimentary training procedures pertaining to extracting samples to Victoria doctors.
Clarifying the status of the Swine Flu ward, Victoria Medical Superintendent Dr B G Tilak said that initially there was a problem to create space as the hospital did not have a dedicated isolation ward for contagious diseases.
He said, ?We encountered a problem in accommodating patients as we had to renovate the place and the cost was borne by the hospital, unlike RGICD, which gets aid from the Centre?.
Dr Tilak further added that doctors in his hospital were ?capable enough? in handling H1N1 Flu patients. He, however, insisted that no further admissions will be entertained till the four positive patients completed their quarantine period
One more tests positive in City
One more patient was tested positive with H1N1 Influenza in Bangalore on Sunday, DHNS reports. A 62-year-old man, who arrived from Atlanta landed at the Bengaluru International Airport on June 17, voluntarily visited Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, where his throat swabs were tested positive with Flu.