The Chennai Corporation will streamline the process of direct reporting of diseases by private hospitals and diagnostic laboratories. All the 15 zonal assistant health officers will hold meetings with representatives of the hospitals and diagnostic laboratories asking them to make optimum use of the system to tackle diseases such as dengue.
Chennai Corporation Commissioner D. Karthikeyan said that 13 cases of dengue reported by private hospitals in the city this year. The civic body has put in place a system whereby all the 596 registered hospitals and 36 diagnostic laboratories in the city are required to provide details of the patients on a daily basis to the Chennai Corporation. A total of 21 hospitals in Tiruvottiyur, 7 in Manali, 11 in Madhavaram, 45 in Ambattur, 19 in Valasaravakkam, 28 in Alandur, 19 in Perungudi and 9 in Sholinganallur have started reporting diseases to Chennai Corporation. As some hospitals are yet to report online, the civic body officials collect data directly. This adds to the delay in collation of data.
Based on the minutes of the meeting in all the zones on Thursday, the civic body will devise more efficient methods to track public health on a daily basis and take quick remedial measures.
Civic body officials will stress the need for online reporting of the total number of suspected cases in the prescribed format by reporting officers of the hospital or laboratory concerned. After the hospital receives results of medical tests, the name, address and other details of the patients would be reported in a separate format.
Malaria, dengue, plague, cerebrospinal fever, cholera, tuberculosis, epidemic influenza, chikungunya, tetanus and rabies are among diseases or conditions on the list that must be reported by the hospitals.
