The State government is taking measures on a war-footing to contain threats posed by dengue and A(H1N1) influenza, Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar said in Coimbatore on Sunday.
“The Chief Minister has instructed officials to avert fatalities due to fever at any cost. Though a declining trend is being seen in some districts since Saturday, doctors and hospital staff have been instructed to work on Saturday, Sunday, and even on festival days,” the Minister said after visiting fever wards at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) with Minister for Municipal Administration and Rural Development S.P. Velumani.
Dr. Vijaya Baskar said the use of steroid dexamethasone by a few private hospitals for quick relief from fever had come to the attention of the Health Department.
Notice to IMA
The use of the steroid was found in the case-sheet of a patient referred from a private hospital to one of the government medical college hospitals.
“Notices have been sent to the Indian Medical Association as to why action should not be taken against such hospitals,” he said.
Hospitals had been instructed not to handle fever cases if there were no beds to accommodate patients.
After visiting patients at CMCH, the Minister said four workers of the hospital had been placed under suspension over unhygienic conditions near the fever ward.
A senior official of the Health Department said the Minister instructed the Director of the Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project (TNHSP) to conduct an audit on how empanelled hospitals were using the revenue generated from the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.
The direction was issued after the Minister found that the authorities had failed to use the funds for development work on a priority basis.