Private hospitals to get government notice

With two H1N1 deaths in the state being blamed on the alleged negligence of private hospitals, the state government plans to send notification to all private hospitals in the state under the 'Epidemic Act -1897. This was revealed by a highly placed source in the state health department.

Sources said that by issuing the notification the government wanted the doctors to know about the alarming situation and to take extra care in dealing with the patients.

Confirming the development, principal health secretary (state), Ravi Saxena said "The death of Anandi Patel is a sign of carelessness and therefore we have sent a notice to the Siddhi Vinayak Hospital and have asked for their explanation."

He said due to the incident, the government is trying to inform all other private hospitals to ensure that they take all such cases seriously.

Sources further revealed that when more and more suspect cases of the disease were being brought in, laboratory checking to confirm presence of H1N1 virus had become a bit difficult.

A source in the Ahmedabad Civil hospital said that the state has limited number of kits to carry out H1N1 checking and the process takes around 5 days.

Therefore, in certain cases the results get delayed which can prove fatal.  But the source said that the situation is now under control.