kolkata: Following the state Health department's strict instruction to check unnecessary referral of patients, various medical colleges in the state are chalking out plans to bring in a full-proof mechanism to avoid such incidents.
State government recently issued a strong message to all the government hospitals to check unnecessary referral of patients. Health department also warned that stern action would be taken against the hospital authorities if such incidents continue to occur unabated. It was learnt that many of the medical colleges in the city have initiated some processes in this regard. RG Kar Medical College and Hospital has already taken various strict measures including the introduction of E-tickets and E-discharge. All the admission and the discharge of patients will be maintained on the computer. All the records will be preserved. Till now a log was maintained by the hospital regarding the admission and release of patients. Computer generated data will be maintained at all the departments of RG Kar Medical College including emergency and trauma care so that authorities get to know the details about the admission and discharge of patients.
"E-tickets are done when the patients are brought to the hospital which will give the details of the patients. The system of E-tickets has already been introduced in the hospital. Hospital authorities will be able to know about the current status of the patients and the present medication," a senior official of RG Kar said.
As per the new guidelines, before referring the patients, the doctors in the hospitals have to ensure that there are vacant beds and adequate infrastructure to handle such patients in the other hospitals. Action will be taken if any lapses are found on the parts of the doctors, who are referring the patients.
"There has been a tendency among a section of doctors to transfer the patients to higher settings when the situation does not demand so. As a result all the referral hospitals are often over-burdened with patients. Most of the district and sub-divisional hospitals are fully equipped to handle patients except in a few disciplines," a health official said.