There are moves to add around a hundred beds to the existing 250 beds of Andhra Pradesh’s district hospital at Khammam.
This proposal to tackle overcrowding was approved by the hospital development committee, is now being considered by the government.Often touted as the State’s second best institution of Vaidya Vidhana Parishad (VVP), after the one at Machilipatnam, the hospital is found short of beds, quite frequently. Many times, two patients are made to share one bed. The hospital has the highest in-patient admissions, rising up to even 426 patients on a single day.
As part of the programme to promote institutional deliveries, the hospital faces overcrowded maternity wards as well; delivery cases received by the hospital cross 300 a month.
This is not all. Around 350 cases (HIV) are also being treated here. These patients were provided with antiretroviral therapy after conducting the CD-4 count. The number of people coming in from the villages for the CD-4 count testing is also soaring.
Thousands of physically challenged people are also thronging the hospital for disability certificates. This has followed reports that pension amounts for handicapped people are likely to increase. Some 7,000 persons made a beeline for the hospital just for this, last Wednesday.
The hospital is also short of staff as four posts for the civil surgeons and four posts for the civil assistant surgeons are yet to be filled up.
Source-Medindia
ANN/M
