Indonesian experts: ‘Nurses more important than doctors’

LAHORE:

Most dengue sufferers can be treated at home and only haemorrhaging patients need be kept in hospital, said Indonesian experts who visited the city’s major public hospitals on Monday.

The 20-member Indonesian delegation, led by Dr Rita Kusriastuti, visited Mayo, Ganga Ram, Services and Children’s hospitals and met with patients and medical staff.

Talking to reporters, Dr Kusriastuti said that the dengue virus had first hit Indonesia 40 years ago and it was now under control in that country. She said that in their experience, nurses were more important than doctors in the treatment process.

She said that the team, which will stay in Lahore for two weeks, would visit hospitals and share their experience with doctors and nurses in clinical groups starting on Monday. Their schedule for the two weeks will see them divided into groups and sent to various hospitals.

Nurses recruited

The Health Department issued appointment letters to 100 new nurses for Services Hospital, said Medical Superintendent Dr Muhammad Javed on Sunday. He said of the 135,720 patients who came to the hospital up to September 30 with suspected cases of dengue, 133,061 had their blood tested and 1,136 tested positive for dengue and were admitted.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2011.