RAWALPINDI, Oct 9: Dengue patients arriving at three government-run hospitals have complained that they have to wait for hours in getting admission to dengue wards despite extreme emergency.

While talking to Dawn, the patients at Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), DHQ Hospital and Holy Family Hospital (HFH) said that the hospital administrations refused to admit them citing the reason of non-availability of the beds.

They said that they were subjected to maltreatment and rude behaviour by the government hospitals` administrations forcing them to get medical treatment at private hospitals which was not affordable.

They said that the duty doctors gave prescriptions with the advice to rest at their homes instead of getting them admitted to the hospitals.

`I have got the dengue serology from National Institute of Health (NIH) which declared me dengue patient and my platelets count was 41,000 but the BBH administration refused to give me admission, said Adil Pasha, a former councilor of Dhama Syedan, while talking to Dawn.

He said that he contracted the virus from his locality Ali Town, Adiala Road as the health department did not fumigate the area and more than 20 people of the same 10cality were infected with dengue virus.

Nazir Ahmed, a patient at HFH, said that he came from Adiala Road as he had been suffering from high fever for the last three days.

He said that his platelets were below 30,000 and HFHdengue ward doctors refused to give him admission.

He said that the duty doctors refused to admit him and said that they were giving admission to only those patients whose condition was critical. He said that some doctors referred him to a private clinic but the fee of the private clinic for dengue fever was not affordable for him.

Shazia Zaheer, a patient at DHQ Hospital, said she came here for checkup but neither dengue ward doctors nor duty doctors at emergency department entertained her and advised to come on Monday at Outdoor Patients Department (OPD).

When contacted, BBH Acting Medical Superintendent Dr Arshad Ali Sabir said that the administration had arranged60 bedsforthe dengue patients and 32 suspected dengue patients were admitted to the hospital while the remaining 18 beds were lying vacant.

He said that the doctors admitted the patients in critical condition whose platelets were below 20,000 while the less critical patients were advised to remain at their homes and got the medical check on daily basis for three days.

DHQ Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Sher Ali Khan said that the hospital administration had specified 56 beds for dengue patients and total 46 patients were admitted to the hospital.

HFH In-Charge Infectious Diseases Dr Javed Hayyat dispelled the impression regarding the shortage of beds at the hospital and said that the doctors admitted only those patients who were in critical condition.