Punjab to automate all govt hospitals

After postponing his visit for a couple of times, Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Vivek Pratap Singh visited the Civil Hospital, Ludhiana.

Chief Secretary Anurag Verma had asked him to visit the hospital in connection with the August 27 incident where a patient had lost his life after felling off the stretcher at the hospital. Three employees of the hospital were also suspended in the case.

The Principal Secretary was here to analyse the complete set-up and issue clear-cut guidelines/standard operating procedures (SOPs) so that such an incident should not reoccur in future at the hospital or at any other government hospital.

He said the SOPs were there but it needs to be ensured that these were implemented and followed properly. “For this, soon, the state government will make the management of its government hospitals fully automated. Five districts have been chosen for the pilot project and once it is successful in these districts, it will be implemented throughout the state. Ludhiana comes under the second phase,” he said.

Government medical colleges follow e-hospital application while government hospitals follow e-Shushrut, Hospital Management Information System.

“Everything from end-to-end will be automated and it will simplify the process of consulting a doctor at the hospital. It is an integrated computerised clinical information system for improved hospital administration and patient health care. It also provides an accurate, electronically stored medical record of the patient. There will be no scope of mistake while using the system. Aam Aadmi Clinics are currently following the same line of technique,” he said.

Talking about the shortage of staff in hospitals, Vivek Pratap Singh said doctors were specialists and highly qualified people and that was the reason that their recruitment was not easy. The government is now devising other ways to overcome the issue.

“In January, 500 posts of specialist were opened but only 150 were recruited. To solve the issue, we have to adopt other measures. Hence, recently house surgeons were appointed to overcome the issue of staff shortage. For the 500 posts of house surgeon in the state, 400 were recruited and at present, 300 are working,” he said.

Further the Principal Secretary said in yet another endeavour to solve the issue of shortage of staff, the government was working in yet another proposal.

“Under the proposal, we are planning to involve postgraduate students in the working of government hospitals. The PG students who complete their studies from government medical colleges have to sign a bond after completing their course and the plan was to post them in government hospitals during their bond period and in this way, we can achieve our goal of overcoming staff shortage,” he said.

When asked if doctors in the government sector are overburdened and it is becoming the main reason behind the reluctance of the younger lot to join the government services, he said: “Treatment and prevention, both are responsibilities of the government doctors and both go side by side. Primary health and preventive part, both are important and need to be undertaken by the doctors in the government sector. We have got additional staff that are working in Aam Aadmi Clinics. The department is devising ways to undertake the work in a planned manner,” he added.

He took the round of the hospital and met patients at the emergency ward and also held a meeting with doctors and nurses of the hospital. Staff of the hospital discussed about their problems and issues related to shortage of staff. They said he had asked them to send him the staff-patient ratio and after studying that, the authorities would rationalise the staff.

The Principal Secretary also visited the ward of unidentified male patients where a man lost his life after felling off the stretcher on August 27. The Civil Surgeon told him that those patients who get fully cured are shifted while others were kept in the ward itself and some stay in the ward for two-three months due to which the shortage of beds occurs. The Principal Secretary asked DC Surabhi Malik that separate arrangement should be made for those patients who were on the recovery path to check the problem of shortage of beds.

Visited ward of patient died on Aug 27
After postponing his visit for a couple of times, Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Vivek Pratap Singh visited Civil Hospital in connection with the August 27 incident where a patient had lost his life after felling off the stretcher at the hospital. He also visited the male ward of unidentified patients where the incident occurred. Tribune India