Keep track of H1N1 patients, health dept tells Hyderabad’s corporate hospitals

HYDERABAD: Worried over the sudden ‘disappearance’ of four swine flu patients from city hospitals recently, the state health department has now issued fresh instructions to the authorities concerned to immediately inform district health and medical officials in case any H1N1 patient leaves against medical advice.
Incidentally, these ‘absconding’ patients -- one of whom was admitted to a corporate hospital—remain untraceable, thus adding to the fears of the air-borne disease spreading further in Hyderabad.In fact, Dr P Sambasiva Rao, director of health services, Telangana, himself admitted, during a media interaction, that some patients vanished. While he had put the figure at five, one of the patients, a 53-year-old woman, who left a hospital midway through the treatment on December 27, was later found in another corporate hospital.
“The whereabouts of the other 53-year-old male, who was admitted along with this woman, continues to be a mystery as his address is yet to be found,” said a health official, on condition of anonymity. In another case of runaway patient, health officials faced a similar predicament when a H1N1-positive patient left Gandhi Hospital on December 15 without any formal discharge orders.
What’s making matters worse is the callousness of some hospitals, including the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM), that are found maintaining no updates on the addresses of patients walking in with swine flu. And a proof of this lies in the sample analysis reports released by IPM on a daily basis. For instance, on January 2, two of the three positive patients—a 34-year-old male and a 52-year-old female—were identified only with their names in the IPM report. It had no other detail.
When contacted, Dr K Subhakar, state swine flu coordinator, said that when a corporate hospital sends samples to IPM for swine flu test, the burden of sharing the requisite information also lies with them. “They ought to notify us whenever anything happens to a swine flu patient,” he said.
“Not just H1N1 cases, private hospitals are required to share information with us on all notifiable diseases like dengue or tuberculosis with us without fail,” said Dr P Venkateshwar Rao, district medical and health officer, Hyderabad, adding that they have asked city’s corporate hospitals to keep them informed about the movement of swine flu patients.