Pathanamthitta shivers with fever

Platelet separation machine at General Hospital has been inoperative for last one year

DISEASE CONTROL:Patients waiting at the out-patient wing at the General Hospital in Pathanamthitta on Wednesday. —PHOTO: LEJU KAMAL

The Health Department has been caught napping as it failed to strengthen the ‘Fever Out-Patient’ wing at the Pathanamthitta General Hospital at a time when the district started shivering with viral fever.

The General Hospital is facing shortage of seven doctors and the authorities have failed even to fill the two vacancies of Assistant Surgeons at the Fever OP.

Sources told

The Hindu that 1,700 to 1,900 patients seek treatment at the out-patient wing of the Pathanamthitta General Hospital on a daily basis and 1,200 of them were found to have been fever cases.

Defunct unit

It is strange to note that the blood component separation unit at the General Hospital has been remaining idle for the past one year for want of the mandatory licence for making it functional.

Ironically, the General Hospital does not have a Pathologist without whom the functioning of a blood component separation unit there is a remote possibility.

The platelet separation machine was installed at the General Hospital two years ago and it was functioning for the next one year.

However, the authorities failed to renew the machine’s licence after one year, making the blood separation unit defunct for the past one year, leaving the poor patients at the receiving end.

However, the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) machine, used as a diagnostic tool for accurate detection of ailments like dengue fever, is operational at the Government General Hospitals at Pathanamthitta and Adoor, though the machine installed at the District Hospital in Kozhencherry has become inoperative.

However, the district Health authorities have improved the facilities at the fever ward and the children’s ward by providing mosquito nets to each bed in an effort to check the vector-borne diseases spreading to more people.

According to the Deputy District Medical Officer, L.Anithakumari, a total of 376 confirmed dengue fever cases have been reported from different parts of the district as on Wednesday.

As many as 27,100 patients sought treatment for fever alone at various Government healthcare centres in the district. Dr Anithakumari said the Government healthcare centres in the district have also reported 34 leptospirosis and 22 malaria cases, this year. The General Hospital is facing shortage of seven nursing staff and seven paramedical staff.

The hospital authorities find it tough to run the pharmacy and the clinical laboratory round the clock due to acute staff shortage.