KLANG: Government hospitals in Selangor will not turn away any dengue patients despite congestion in several hospitals in the state.
State Health Director Dr Azman Abu Bakar said doctors have been ordered to treat everyone who showed the slightest symptom of dengue.
“Government hospitals will never turn their back on any patient,” said Dr Azman.
Dr Azman said almost all the beds at several hospitals have been taken up due to the increase in admissions.
“We have placed camp beds at the designated wards and have also opened new wards to accommodate dengue patients,” he said.
One of the most congested hospitals in the state is the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) in Klang.
A check at the hospital found beds placed along the corridor on a seventh floor ward.
According to a HTAR official who declined to be named, the number of admissions had been steadily increasing since November last year.
“Our patients come from Klang, Kuala Selangor, Shah Alam, Banting and the surrounding areas,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, Klang Municipal Council (MPK) acting health director Zulkifli Abbas said that there was a tremendous increase in dengue cases.
“We have interviewed all the dengue victims here to determine if the infection occurred in Klang or was imported from elsewhere,’’ said Zulkifli.
He said there were 661 reported dengue cases in Klang last month, the highest in the last five years.
Similarly, patient admissions due to dengue at some private hospitals have increased to a point where there are not enough beds in medical wards.
Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia president Datuk Dr Jacob Thomas said that in these instances, patients are admitted to other wards such as those meant for cardiology, orthopaedic and surgical cases until beds are available in the medical ward.
“The situation is not worrying and we don’t turn patients away. The staff are multi-skilled even if it is the cardiology ward so they can treat patients with dengue,” he said yesterday.
Dr Jacob added that the association worked closely with parties such as state health departments and public hospitals, besides lectures being given on dengue by government sector infectious disease specialists.
“There are also cases of patients being referred from government hospitals,” he said.
He also said that due to the increase of cases, the protocol was to monitor non-critical cases instead of admitting them immediately.
Dr Jacob also reminded the public to play their part in terms of carrying out prevention steps in order to help keep the situation in check.
In Penang, state Health Department deputy director (medical) Dr Hassan Merican said dengue cases in the state were still “manageable and under control”.
He also said that there was an average admission of two to three dengue patients per day at the Penang Hospital and a lesser figure for the Seberang Jaya Hospital within the first two weeks of this month.
He said experts would first screen those who sought treatment for the disease and that only those who needed to be warded would be admitted, adding that patients could be discharged within a few days depending on their recovery rate.
Dr Hassan added that there were 16 dengue patients warded at the Penang Hospital and two more at the Seberang Jaya Hospital yesterday.
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