What went unnoticed, however, were the lack of basic facilities for the treatment of dengue at the Civil Hospital here.

As per the information gathered by Newsline, only a handful of patients have turned towards the Civil Hospital to seek treatment for dengue and none was reported to have got free treatment at the hospital ever since the chief minister’s announcement.

Notably, the hospital does not have a Single Donor Platelet extraction machine. Health Minister Lakshmi Kanta Chawla, on a visit to the city on October 15, had taken notice of the lack of facilities at the hospital after a meeting with the officials of her department and the Municipal Corporation. She had asked them to acquire cell separators and SDP extraction machines worth Rs 1.75 crore so that they can be better equipped in the hour of crisis.

Dr Harvinder Singh, senior medical officer, feigned ignorance first and said he needed to check the records to tell how many patients were treated at the hospital so far. He later added that as per his knowledge, no patient was given free treatment per se.

On October 11, the chief minister had asked the chief secretary to instruct the Health department to effectively deal with the increasing spread of dengue in the state. The issue had come up during the sangat darshan programme of the chief minister.

So far, 1,633 confirmed dengue cases have been reported from the district and the number is expected to rise further.