Dear Health Minister, we cannot admit every suspected dengue patient!
posted in - Nation, - Palmdoc |According to the Star, the Health Minister was quoted as saying Suspected dengue patients shouldn’t be sent home
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, expressing concern over the management of dengue cases in hospitals, said he had received complaints that some suspected dengue patients were sent home while waiting for the test results, instead of being placed under observation.
“I see a number of cases where the dengue patient died in the hospital just after one, two or three days of being warded. I want them (doctors) to look into the cases of death, how to minimise death.
I hope the Minister checked with his medical advisors since he is not a medically trained doctor. Dengue patients have varying degrees of severity as far as the illness is concerned. Patients with milder forms of dengue and who are not so ill need not be admitted. Indeed if doctors were to follow the Health Minister’s advice and admit every “suspected dengue patient” then I can tell you his MOH hospital wards will be overflowing with unnecessary admissions. The MOH already has guidelines for Outpatient monitoring of dengue as well as Criteria for Admission (you can read these in the 2nd Edition of the Guidelines in PDF format) and I am sure the Minister is not suggesting we ignore the guidelines to follow his advice.
No one wants to see anyone die from dengue. In an endemic, there will be some very severe cases and despite all that can be medically done, there still will be some deaths. Perhaps the Minister should look into why public health measures are still sorely lacking that the breeding grounds for Aedes are still rampant in our urban areas. That is where the solution lies, not indiscriminate admission of all suspected dengue patients.
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July 16th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Maybe the esteemed minister has extra rooms in his residence to be converted to a ‘waiting for next blood test result’ ward for patients to be placed into.
July 16th, 2010 at 9:13 am
Palmdoc is right. I think that the MOH has sidelined the need for better control of the vector Aedes aegypti, in the battle against dengue.
We should emulate Vietnam, where Professor Brian Kay, with various strategies including use of the minute crustacean Mesocyclops, had managed to _eradicate_ Aedes from 6 out of 9 communities, and rendered dengue infections to almost zero.
http://bit.ly/9fVrbB
July 16th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Talked many times already. Higher position never understand the problem of the first liner.
July 19th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
The trick is simple: just consult the medical advisors and check the guidelines well ahead before confronting the media to avoid embarrassment. This is not the first time after the ignorant comments on the management of H1N1 cases. However,it’s inevitable and understandable if the questions were presented by the reporters unexpectedly during an unrelated event. I believe a responsible and diligent minister will always get full support and cooperation from the doctors and the people to ensure quality healthcare of the country.
July 21st, 2010 at 7:58 pm
He who speaks will be listened to.
The frontliners will suffer.
The old advice stands.
Think before one speaks.
We should compile all his ‘funny’ statements to make a book. Best seller..