In a city where residents can order literally everything including vegetables, groceries, cooked food, laundry services and even repairs online, finding information on the availability of critical care services in a government facility is an ordeal.
Although the Departments of Health and Medical Education are working on a ventilator helpline - that will provide information on the availability of the life support system at any given time – and are planning to network all trauma care centres, activists said the government should, at a more basic level, ensure coordination among various government hospitals on the same campus. Akhila Vasan from the Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali said it was unfortunate that patients who are referred from one government hospital to another for investigations or speciality evaluation are left on their own. Citing an example, she said: “Recently a patient from the Institute of Nephro Urology (INU) was referred to Victoria Hospital for some investigations. Although both these hospitals are on the same campus, the patient was not allowed to use a wheel chair from INU. He was asked to either walk up to Victoria Hospital next door or use a wheel chair from Victoria Hospital.”
Upendra Bhojani, faculty at the Institute of Public Health, said an effective health system needs coordination across different types of healthcare providers (government and private).
