The Medical Education Department has come down heavily on medical college hospitals for their failure to provide basic amenities such as wheelchairs and stretchers to patients. Medical superintendents of such hospitals will henceforth be held accountable if the facilities are not provided to patients and if their relatives are forced to carry them from ward to ward or to the laboratory for tests.
A circular issued by the department recently directed nurses, doctors, security and other staff to discharge their duties properly and ensure patients are not given a cause to complain.
The move comes a fortnight after a woman carried her child to the pathology laboratory, while her relatives carried an oxygen cylinder for her, at the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Hubballi. The incident took place when Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil was inspecting the hospital.
Multiple instances
This was not a lone case of inefficiency on the part of medical college hospitals. In June, an old woman had to drag her husband on the floor from the scanning room to the ward of McGann Hospital in Shivamogga after the staff refused to provide a wheelchair. The department has also pulled up medical college hospitals for delays in mobilising staff in case of emergencies such as road accidents.
The circular — issued to all the deans and directors of medical and dental medical colleges as well as super-speciality hospitals — has informed the departments aiding the casualty section during emergencies to be equipped to handle the additional load.
“The casualty medical officer in all such cases must immediately inform the respective director, and the medical superintendent must immediately go to the casualty to assess the requirements and take action to mobilise [resources],” the circular stated.
Other points raised include the need to summon additional staff when there is a crisis or emergency. In such instances, staff need to report to the medical college with the least possible delay, it said.
Meanwhile, Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil said: “We have issued a set of precautionary measues that needs to be taken by hospitals under the department. Doctors need to be alert specifically in cases of emergency.”
Leave headquarters with permission
From now on, the directors and medical superintendents of medical colleges and hospitals “cannot leave their headquarters” without the permission of the Additional Chief Secretary of the Medical Education Department.
In an order issued in this connection, the department has also asked the directors to inform heads of departments that they, too, cannot leave their headquarters without prior permission.
All staff and doctors are expected to reside in the headquarters of their medical colleges. “Those who do not reside in their respective medical college must immediately make arrangements to live [there] to avoid disciplinary action,” an official from the department said.
