City hospitals filling up with dengue patients
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As the number of dengue fever patients increases, city-owned hospitals that provide free medical treatment are beginning to become overwhelmed.
As of Friday afternoon, the total number of in-patients at the Budhi Asih Hospital in East Jakarta stood at 49, including 18 children and a seven-year-old girl who was being treated in the intensive care unit.
The hospital received 15 new patients on Thursday before discharging 12 recovered patients on Friday.
Hospital inpatient services director Taufik Rahman said all medical staff had to put in extra hours each day.
"Some nurses have to stay overnight at the hospital for one or two days," added Umronih, pediatric nursing services coordinator.
Taufik said that if the wards for dengue fever inpatients became overcrowded, some of them, especially the adults, would be placed in the corridor on gurneys provided by the Jakarta Health Agency.
Currently, three patients are already lying in the corridor outside the Melati ward in the Budhi Asih Hospital.
The hospital has a total of 176 beds for all patients, including 32 beds for those suffering from dengue fever.
Matron Maryati Yusra said that with the current increase in patient numbers and to anticipate overcrowding, class II wards would be opened to class III patients.
The city administration has decided to exempt dengue fever patients being treated in class III wards from the need to pay.
Another city-owned hospital in East Jakarta, Pasar Rebo Hospital, had 67 dengue patients as of Thursday. The class III wards were full and 20 patients were lying in the corridor. Twenty-two out of an additional 40 beds had already been occupied.
Meanwhile, Governor Sutiyoso has demanded that Jakartans pay more attention to the cleanliness of their surroundings in order to stem the dengue outbreak by encouraging people to take part in the "30-minute cleanup" campaign.
His administration has not declared an emergency thus far, but has ordered the city health agency to increase its monitoring of the situation on the ground. (004)