Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Chest diseases being sidelined
Nirmala M Nagaraj, TNN 31 August 2009, 02:19am IST
BANGALORE: It's been a long wait for chronic chest disease patients. After the deadly H1N1 flu hit Bangalore almost a month ago, not a single major
surgery has been performed at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Chest Diseases (RGICD).
With a single operation theatre, four ventilators, two surgical ICU beds and staff shoratge, RGICD has been working round the clock screening and testing patients for the flu. This has affected and delayed treatment of patients suffering from tuberculosis, asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer, chest tumour and other chronic chest diseases.
This being the only autonomous chest disease institute, patients come from across the state and even neighbouring ones. The daily outpatient load is 80 to 100 patients. With each patient requiring five to six interventions annually, around 6,000 surgeries are performed here every year.
"Until surgical beds are vacant, we can't perform a major surgery. There is a need for emergency ventilator support and we cannot operate. We have only two surgical ICU beds and no medical ICU," director Dr Shashidhar Buggi said.
To ensure that treatment of others is not delayed any further because of the sudden pandemic, the institute is planning to make arrangements for a separate H1N1 ICU ward.
Adding to the woes, the institute is also short-staffed. "We have just two thoracic surgeons. I manage H1N1 patients and the other surgeon attends to patients with other diseases. Among doctors, 14 are in non-teaching posts and six are teaching staff. Four posts are vacant. While our requirement is 150 nurses, we have only 40. Recently, 15 nurses were appointed by the government on a contract basis, but only six have reported. There only three thoracic surgeons in the state working in the government sector, two of us in Bangalore and one in Mysore," explained Dr Buggi.
K C General Hospital, where around 100 suspected H1N1 patients are screened daily, has six ICU beds. Due to staff shortage, only four are functional. "To avoid contamination, we don't admit H1N1 flu patients to the ICU, but refer them to RGICD. Most overburdened due to the flu are paediatric and medicine departments... We have only three paediatricians," said Dr Byra Reddy, resident medical officer.
Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital started screening flu patients recently, but the century-old hospital is yet have an ICU. H1N1 patients requiring ICU facility are again referred to RGICD or Victoria Hospital.
Aware of the ill-equipped government hospitals, the state health and family welfare ministry was the first in the country to approach private hospitals for support.
Initially, when RGICD was the only institute for screening and testing H1N1 flu patients, there was additional burden on the staff. "Now, with the flu panic reduced to some extent, we can concentrate on our chest disease patients," added Dr Buggi.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4952206.cms
Nirmala M Nagaraj, TNN 31 August 2009, 02:19am IST
BANGALORE: It's been a long wait for chronic chest disease patients. After the deadly H1N1 flu hit Bangalore almost a month ago, not a single major
surgery has been performed at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Chest Diseases (RGICD).
With a single operation theatre, four ventilators, two surgical ICU beds and staff shoratge, RGICD has been working round the clock screening and testing patients for the flu. This has affected and delayed treatment of patients suffering from tuberculosis, asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer, chest tumour and other chronic chest diseases.
This being the only autonomous chest disease institute, patients come from across the state and even neighbouring ones. The daily outpatient load is 80 to 100 patients. With each patient requiring five to six interventions annually, around 6,000 surgeries are performed here every year.
"Until surgical beds are vacant, we can't perform a major surgery. There is a need for emergency ventilator support and we cannot operate. We have only two surgical ICU beds and no medical ICU," director Dr Shashidhar Buggi said.
To ensure that treatment of others is not delayed any further because of the sudden pandemic, the institute is planning to make arrangements for a separate H1N1 ICU ward.
Adding to the woes, the institute is also short-staffed. "We have just two thoracic surgeons. I manage H1N1 patients and the other surgeon attends to patients with other diseases. Among doctors, 14 are in non-teaching posts and six are teaching staff. Four posts are vacant. While our requirement is 150 nurses, we have only 40. Recently, 15 nurses were appointed by the government on a contract basis, but only six have reported. There only three thoracic surgeons in the state working in the government sector, two of us in Bangalore and one in Mysore," explained Dr Buggi.
K C General Hospital, where around 100 suspected H1N1 patients are screened daily, has six ICU beds. Due to staff shortage, only four are functional. "To avoid contamination, we don't admit H1N1 flu patients to the ICU, but refer them to RGICD. Most overburdened due to the flu are paediatric and medicine departments... We have only three paediatricians," said Dr Byra Reddy, resident medical officer.
Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital started screening flu patients recently, but the century-old hospital is yet have an ICU. H1N1 patients requiring ICU facility are again referred to RGICD or Victoria Hospital.
Aware of the ill-equipped government hospitals, the state health and family welfare ministry was the first in the country to approach private hospitals for support.
Initially, when RGICD was the only institute for screening and testing H1N1 flu patients, there was additional burden on the staff. "Now, with the flu panic reduced to some extent, we can concentrate on our chest disease patients," added Dr Buggi.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4952206.cms