With more patients being admitted with dengue infection in state-run hospitals, more doctors and technicians are likely to be pressed into service in the tertiary care hospitals for the next three months.
Doctors and technicians from dispensaries and primary hospitals will be pressed into service at the tertiary care hospitals to monitor dengue patients.
The Delhi government has issued advisories to the five zonal branches for reorganising staff across hospitals.
The state government had recently divided the Directorate of Health Services, responsible for implementation of health schemes into five branches – Central, East, North, West and South Delhi. Five hospitals were given additional charge of reviewing healthcare arrangements in the respective zone.
“There is a steep rise in dengue cases in August. The government has notified that staff can be reshuffled depending on the hospital’s requirements. It stresses on the need for manpower management in crisis situations,” said a senior doctor at a hospital in west Delhi.
Admissions have multiplied in the past few weeks with several super-speciality hospitals dealing with acute staff shortage in handling dengue cases. The hospitals are fighting shortage of both doctors and technicians.
“The mandate is to admit patients whose platelet count has gone below 50,000. The admission rates have gone up steeply in the past few weeks. With patient overload in hospitals, more staff are required to monitor these cases,” said a senior doctor in a hospital in north Delhi.
The notification also mentions recruitments “as per requirement” in respective hospitals. “There is no clear cut guidelines if the hospitals can make fresh recruits. The focus is on reorganising staff. If fresh recruits of doctors and technicians are to be made on an ad hoc basis, it will require financial clearance too. There is a need to boost manpower with rising dengue cases,” said a senior doctor in an east Delhi hospital.
In the last week of August, 253 fresh dengue cases have been reported, taking the total figures this season to 530.