Special ICUs for swine flu at RML from Friday

New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS) The Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, which was the first nodal hospital for swine flu in the national capital, will Friday set up two special Intensive Care Units (ICU) following the increase in the number of swine flu cases in the country, a hospital official said Thursday.

The two ICUs will be operational Feb 20 onwards and will add to the special facilities for swine flu in the hospital that already has two Out Patient Departments (OPDs) to handle H1N1 cases.

Delhi has till now recorded 1,917 cases of swine flu, while six people have died due to the disease.

"The two ICUs will be operational Friday onwards and the number of staff to work in the departments has also been decided," the official, who did not wish to be named till the ICU gets operational, told IANS.

The official also said the hospital was earlier facing staff shortage as the nurses' union had requested the authorities to increase the recruitment age from 30 to 35.

"We somehow solved the problem of staff shortage. The nurses' union of the hospital had initially created hurdles as they wanted the recruitment age to be increased from 30 to 35. We solved the problem after consulting the health ministry," the official said.