CIVIL HOSPITAL NOT EQUIPPED

Civil Hospital in Civil Lines, the district’s largest government hospital, is ill-equipped to deal with swine flu patients.

The hospital currently has a six-bed swine flu isolation ward. However, only one patient – a 12-year-old girl – has been admitted to the ward since the flu broke out in the district, health department officials said. “Patients with a severe case of H1N1 often come to the hospital to seek treatment. However, they are referred to other private hospitals or Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi due to a lack of medical equipment and inadequate staff,” said a doctor at the hospital. According to staff at the hospital, there is no ventilator at the hospital, which is why critical patients are sent to private hospitals. Civil Hospital has a capacity of 200 inpatients and also receives more than 3,000 outpatients daily, but the staff can be seen struggling to meet the demand due to shortage. Dr BK Rajora, civil surgeon, Gurugram, said, “We have written to the state government several times demanding medical equipment and staff.”