BALURGHAT: With the target to reduce the number of patient referrals from the Maternity department of Balurghat District Hospital, an emergency meeting was held on Thursday evening in presence of Sudip Das, Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) of South Dinajpur, Krishnendu Bikash Bagh, Superintendent of Balurghat District Hospital and senior doctors.
In the meeting, it was decided that patients cannot be referred from the Maternity department of Balurghat District Hospital to the other state-run hospitals unless necessary.
“Guidelines have already been issued by the district Health department in this regard. Non-critically ill patients cannot be referred,” Bagh said. However, Bagh said that Balurghat District Hospital has fewer doctors than required in the Maternity department.
There are supposed to be eight doctors in this department but there are only six at present. According to a source, two doctors left without informing the authorities a couple of months ago.
“An average of 25 to 30 patients are admitted to the maternity ward every day. It is becoming difficult to provide services with fewer doctors,” said a source. According to the rules, the Superintendent and the responsible department head should be informed to refer the patient but in the last one month, about 10-12 maternity patients have been referred about which the head of department and hospital superintendent are not aware.