News
Kalubowila Hospital facing crisis with increasing number of dengue patients
The CMC has asked construction site managers to eradicate possible mosquito breeding areas
Dengue patients are flooding the Kalubowila Hospital making it difficult for the staff to manage, Hospital Director Dr. Asela Gunawardena said.
He said, the hospital gets patients from Dehiwala, Mount Lavinia, Nugegoda, Maharagama, Homagama and Pandura and the numbers are twice the number of beds available creating a problem when it comes to separating dengue patients from other patients
and staff.
Dr. Gunawardena said each ward comprised 50 beds but there were double that number of patients due to the high number of dengue cases.
“We are forced to have two sometimes even three patients on a single bed, while others are provided chairs to spend the night. This is a serious situation as dengue can spread to other patients and staff,” he said.
Dr. Gunawardena said over 40 hospital staff including doctors, nurses, cleaning staff and their families have contracted the disease.
He said some dengue patients who are critical have been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit but they were unable to transfer dengue patients to other hospitals as they too needed rest and close monitoring including fluid management.
He said to reduce the overcrowding in the hospital some dengue patients have been shifted to a half- built hospital building in the same complex.
Meanwhile, a hospital nurse who was pregnant and had been diagnosed with dengue had died after confinement due to internal haemorrhaging caused by high blood pressure, a coroner’s court was told during an inquiry into her death.
Meanwhile the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ruwan Wijayamuni told the Sunday Times that they held a meeting with more than 100 managers of construction sites to educate them on the problem of mosquito breeding spots on site.
The site mangers had agreed that they would assign safety officers to supervise the cleaning of these sites.
He said large construction site managers were instructed to divide the area to multiple sectors and put two labourers each to clean a portion. They were also asked to remove the water that collects in the sites where elevators, swimming pools, ponds, underground parking places, and wash-rooms were under construction as well as to be aware of water containers at the site.
Dr. Wijayamuni also said the CMC would initiate a systematic fogging programme for construction sites as well.