States told to ensure hospitals have facilities to tackle heatwave: Mandaviya
- This comes in the backdrop of the IMD warning that the heat wave will continue for the next two days in northern and central India
The central government has issued guidelines to states and union territories to ensure that hospitals have adequate facilities to treat heat-related illnesses, health minister Dr Manaukh Mandaviya said on Monday.
With extreme heatwave conditions across northern and central parts of India, doctors are seeing at least a 50% rise in patients complaining of heat wave-related ailments such as fever, diarrhoea, cramps and dizziness. They said the elderly, kids and people with pre-existing complications are at greater risk and are being advised to stay indoors.
This comes in the backdrop of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) warning that the heat wave will continue for the next two days in northern and central India.
“The increasing temperature in the Delhi is a cause of worry. We are seeing at least an increase of 40-50% patients in the OPD suffering with heat related aliments in OPDs. Many children are having fever and complaining of dizziness and nausea, due to the spell of scorching heat. In the last week, we have attended 25-30 patients suffering with symptoms of heat stroke which we does not not see every year. Their parents have been complaining about the same. Patients having symptoms of heat stroke are lack of sweating, headache, diarrhoea, fever, vomiting. We advise drinking plenty of water and keeping themselves hydrated,” Dr. Gaurav Jain, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine at Dharamshila Narayana Superspeciality Hospital,
Dr Satish Koul, Director, Internal Medicine, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, said: “At least 30- 40% of OPD at present is being seen with heat-related illnesses, especially young school going children and elderly people.”
On Monday, IMD noted that heat wave conditions prevailed in most parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
Dr Atul Gogia, Senior Consultant at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said this year cases of diarrhoea have gone up significantly. “More than half of cases in the OPD are of diarrhoea which is one the main summer related disorder. We advise people to say indoors until the temperature drops down in the next few days as predicted by IMD.”
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan has directed states and UTs to ensure that hospitals have adequate quantities of essential medicines, fluids, ORS, ice packs, and round-the-clock water and power supply to tackle patients coming with heat related illnesses.
“Health department of the State must continue efforts on sensitization and capacity building of medical officers, health staff, grass-root level workers on heat illness, its early recognition and management. Health facilities‘ preparedness must be reviewed for availability of adequate quantities of essential medicines, I.V. fluids, ice packs, ORS and all necessary equipment. Availability of sufficient drinking water at all Health Facilities and continued functioning of cooling appliances in critical areas must be ensured,” Bhushan said in a letter to the states.
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First Published:3 May 2022, 12:48 AM IST
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