Mumbai: Psychiatric disorders, diabetes and hypertension are the top three ailments for which patients have been flooding the main civic-run hospitals, KEM, Sion, Nair and Cooper. A study on morbidity patterns in civic-run health care facilities has shown that 1.74 lakh patients sought treatment from the psychiatric departments of the four hospitals from October 2015 to September 2017. This was followed by nearly 1.34 lakh diabetes patients and 1.27 lakh hypertension patients.
According to Dr. Seema Bansode Gokhe, head, community medicine department, Sion Hospital, which carried out the study, data on over 73.74 lakh patients was gathered from the four tertiary care hospitals, 15 peripheral hospitals, and 175 dispensaries during the two-year period. “This included data from outpatient departments and inpatient departments,” said Dr. Gokhe. Tuberculosis and HIV was excluded from the study as they are analysed separately. Over 51 doctors conducted the study across seven months.
In the 15 peripheral hospitals, data on 5.26 lakh patients was analysed. It revealed that 33.17% patients visited the hospitals for fevers of unknown origin followed by diabetes (19.84%) and hypertension (16.02%). In the civic-run dispensaries, data on 61.74 lakh patients was studied, which revealed nearly 20.51% or 12.71 lakh patients visited the health care set-up for cough, cold and fever, which are widely classified under acute respiratory infections.
Dr. Avinash Supe, dean, KEM Hospital, and director of the four main civic hospitals, said, “We have definitely seen a rise in case of anxiety disorders, stress and other psychosomatic problems. The shift in the trend is that people from lower socio-economic backgrounds are seeking help for such problems.”
The analysis also highlights how non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension are extremely prevalent, and the municipal corporation will look at taking the treatment for these diseases to peripheral and dispensary-levels so that patients do not have to come all the way to the main hospitals.
This is the first time the corporation has studied the data of its patients to draw out morbidity patterns. Said additional municipal commissioner Idzes Kundan, “Data is essential to help us plan better and improvise our existing services.”
