Kolkata: The Bengal government is going to make 'e-prescription' mandatory in emergency wards of all government hospitals which will be under direct monitoring of the Health department. One of the main purposes of the move is to ensure no single case of patient referral is carried out unnecessarily. The state government is committed to check the referral of patients by hospitals that already have adequate infrastructure.
The Health department has already sent the new regulations to the Chief Medical Officers of health in all the districts giving them direct outlines as to what procedures the medical officers have to follow before the referral of a patient to another hospital.
A senior official of the hospital in the rank of Deputy Superintendent will have to monitor the referral of patients on a case by case basis by accessing e-prescription, a centralised system to maintain patients' data. All the district administrations have been urged to enforce the new regulations set by the Health department. Hospital Superintendents will have to put the rosters of on-duty doctors on display in the hospital so that patients and their family members can see their availability.
According to sources in the Health department, those who will be found flouting any of these new regulations can face punishment as per the service rule.
The new guidelines say that medical officers or doctors have to stabilise the patients before referring them to any other hospital. In case of a referral, the on-duty doctors have to mention the details of patients on the 'e-prescription' and why the patient should be transferred to another establishment. If any doctor remains absent without prior approval during duty hours despite his/her name being featured on the roster books, the hospital authorities will have to serve a show-cause notice. Accountability will be fixed on the Deputy Superintendent and the medical officer of the hospital if the patient's health condition deteriorates or he/she dies after being transferred to another hospital.
The state Health department has recently warned around 90 government hospitals across Bengal against any unnecessary referral. It was learnt from sources that many hospitals are referring patients from emergency wards without proper maintenance of logbooks. The Health department has noticed that 'leaving against medical advice' (LAMA) cases have gone up in various hospitals. Some of the doctors have been accused of taking patients to private hospitals they are attached with, against LAMA.