Poor health: Delhi’s govt hospitals ignore concerns of the elderly
3 Jan 2015 11:51 PM GMT
While the population of elderly is expected to grow in coming years, hardly any city government
hospital has a separate geriatric ward for them.
“We don’t have a separate ward for elderly . But we do have Out Patient Department (OPD) for them on Sunday. Also, there is separate queue for them during regular OPDs and in pharmacy. They can’t be treated by doctors of any one department as they have different diseases and are refereed to doctors accordingly,” said Savita Babbar, medical superintendent at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.
According to the recent report on UN Population Fund, India had 90 million elderly people in 2011,
with the number expected to grow to 173 million by 2026.
With absence of no designated geriatric wards, elderly often have to run from one department to another for their treatment. Geriatrics is a speciality that focuses on health care of elderly and differs from standard adult medicine.
“Since elderly have multiple morbidities , in geriatrics aim is to balance different problems and help in healthy ageing,” said a doctor at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which is the only hospital to have a geriatric department.
While AIIMS gets around 150 patients daily in geriatric department, government hospitals don’t feel the need to have a separate ward for elderly.
“Elderly have different problems. Having a separate geriatric ward is non-viable option. We don’t have enough space to accommodate all patients in our hospital, how can we have a geriatric ward ?,” said Sidharth Ramji, medical superintendent at Lok Nayak Hospital. Citing infrastructure as a problem, SK Sharma , medical superintendent at Aruna Asaf Ali Government hospital said “Many elderly patients come in our hospital. We have dedicated OPDs for them but geriatric ward is out of question. Infrastructure is a big issue.”
hospital has a separate geriatric ward for them.
“We don’t have a separate ward for elderly . But we do have Out Patient Department (OPD) for them on Sunday. Also, there is separate queue for them during regular OPDs and in pharmacy. They can’t be treated by doctors of any one department as they have different diseases and are refereed to doctors accordingly,” said Savita Babbar, medical superintendent at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.
According to the recent report on UN Population Fund, India had 90 million elderly people in 2011,
with the number expected to grow to 173 million by 2026.
With absence of no designated geriatric wards, elderly often have to run from one department to another for their treatment. Geriatrics is a speciality that focuses on health care of elderly and differs from standard adult medicine.
“Since elderly have multiple morbidities , in geriatrics aim is to balance different problems and help in healthy ageing,” said a doctor at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which is the only hospital to have a geriatric department.
While AIIMS gets around 150 patients daily in geriatric department, government hospitals don’t feel the need to have a separate ward for elderly.
“Elderly have different problems. Having a separate geriatric ward is non-viable option. We don’t have enough space to accommodate all patients in our hospital, how can we have a geriatric ward ?,” said Sidharth Ramji, medical superintendent at Lok Nayak Hospital. Citing infrastructure as a problem, SK Sharma , medical superintendent at Aruna Asaf Ali Government hospital said “Many elderly patients come in our hospital. We have dedicated OPDs for them but geriatric ward is out of question. Infrastructure is a big issue.”
Next Story
