Telangana govt hospitals breeding ground for diseases

None of health institutions following mandatory guidelines

Hyderabad: Violation of mandatory guidelines prescribed in the construction of hospitals and clinics is posing a problem in preventing airborne infections within the premises of the health institutions in the State.

According to the State Medical and Health department officials, a majority of hospitals and clinics in public and private sector are being run in violation of these norms.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior official pointed out that there are national guidelines which prescribes specific provisions in the construction of hospitals and clinics.

Patients with aliments like tuberculosis, pneumonia and others infections gather in good numbers at the hospitals and clinics for treatment. This makes hospitals potential areas for the spread of infections from person to person.

To contain the spread of viral infections, guidelines prescribe construction of a building with outpatient examination rooms with natural ventilation, earmarking adequate space for maintaining distance from patient to another person, fast-track movement of outpatients. “The whole idea is to reduce the time of stay of outpatients at the hospitals and clinics so that risk of spreading of infections could be minimised, he added.

However, these rules are not followed in the construction of government-run Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Urban Health Centres (UHCs), Area Hospitals (AHs) and even in case of District Headquarter Hospitals while adding new wards and upgrading the existing hospitals.

All these are under the control of Vaidya Vidhana Parishad, Commissionerate and Director of Medical and Health. But, there is none to enforce these rules, rued the officials.

Further, even several outpatient blocks in prominent hospitals like Osmania, Gandhi, NIMS, Niloufer and Fever Hospital lack such provisions, the sources pointed out.

The sources said that lack of awareness among the officials of the civic bodies about the guidelines was also adding to the problem.

Normally the civic bodies only verify whether provisions for alternative exit points in case of fire accidents has been provided or not, whether adequate space around the proposed construction as per regulations has been provided or not before issuing occupancy certificate.

Though the District Medical and Health department concerned issues permissions for starting the hospitals and clinics even they also do not bother to insist on following the national guidelines.

The sources said this was resulting in majority of hospitals not adhering to the norms in the State and as a result most of the hospitals lack appropriate infection control mechanism in the hospitals.