Click to play videoNew Delhi: India's largest private hospital chain, Apollo Hospitals, has made a U-turn about treating H1N1 Influenza A (swine flu) patients.
After saying that that it won't join the fight against swine flu but was willing to only offer testing equipments to the government, Apollo Hospitals on Thursday evening said that it now needed more time to take a decision and would be willing to treat swine flu patients.
The hospital had earlier on Thursday said that it could not offer beds for swine flu patients in its current facility as treating such patients would compromise safety of other patients already admitted in the hospital.
"We cannot put our patients at risk by exposing them to the infection. We are not in a position to provide facilities for H1N1 flu screening sample collection and in-patient treatment in our campus for fear of cross infection. We have offered our laboratories for testing the samples (collected outside our campus) if they meet with the government standards and specifications," Apollo Hospitals had initially said in a statement issued on Thursday.
But just a few hours later the hospital issued another statement clarifying its stand.
"Apollo Hospitals would like to reiterates that we have not refused to treat patients with H1N1 flu. However, we are unable to treat them in our current facilities at the moment and are exploring ways to create separate facilities. We are in regular touch with the Union and state governments and will provide all support," said the hospital in a statement released on Thursday evening.
"Our laboratories in Delhi have been inspected yesterday (Wednesday) for testing and will serve as a back up to the government. Our laboratories across other locations are gearing up as well and will be offered to the government for inspection. The mortality rate of H1N1 cases is 0.1 per cent in the normal population but is significantly higher in those who are immuno-compromised. Since we treat a large number of patients who are immuno compromised, we cannot put them at risk by exposing them to the H1N1 virus," said the hospital.
Apollo also added that the hospital was planning to create separate facilities to treat swine flu patients.
"We are exploring ways to create separate facilities for treating H1N1 patients in isolation to ensure containment of the disease. We are also in contact with other private providers and request the government to give clear directives and how we can manage the pandemic," the statement said.
Apollo Hospitals CEO Dr K Hari Prasad told CNN-IBN from Hyderabad that the hospital chain was always ready to serve the nation.
"Apollo has always responded to a national cause whether it is floods or any sort of calamity and even this one. We are here to respond and support the government on whatever is required. The initial response shown has been when the disease was not fully understood and we did not know what is the course that needs to be adopted. Now that we understand the course and the disease much better, we definitely need to protect the patients who are in the hospitals by not exposing them to any risk of getting swine flu. That is the first part of it and the second part is that we will respond to the national cause of doing whatever is required handle the crisis," said Dr Prasad
When asked would Apollo offer facilities to treat patients and test samples, Dr Prasad replied, "It has two parts. First the samples of swine flu. Yes our labs are ready to handle and our Delhi hospital has been inspected by the government and once we get the approval we are ready to handle the samples. Similar is the case with other hospitals in the country. Now regarding the treatment part of it. This disease needs specific infrastructure which is normally not available in a normal hospital. This infrastructure needs to be created, it needs to be appropriate and it needs to be created in manner which contains the disease from spreading. So we will be creating the infrastructure and we would not be doing this in the existing hospitals anywhere in the country because that puts the existing patients at risk."
Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia, too, said the Apollo Hospitals have asked for at least 15 days to make necessary arrangements for swine flu patients
"Apollo Hospital has agreed to help us and give us the required space. But they need 15 days at least to make necessary arrangements for screening swine flu," said Kiran Walia.
Delhi government had earlier warned that it was considering strong legal action against hospitals that don't set aside 10 beds for swine flu patients.
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