Health officials ‘baffled’ by data from Health Mgmt Info System Portal

Kolkata: Despite the Bengal government’s efforts to improve health services in state-run hospitals, the negligence of some doctors or a “flawed system” might have tarnished the government’s reputation.

This issue has resurfaced as the state Health department’s “Health Management Information System” portal recorded that some doctors in government hospitals attended to around 900 patients per day during their eight-hour shifts, a figure top health officials find “absurd.”

The data as recorded on the portal showed that some doctors in the hospitals are attending 80-120 patients per day during their visit at the hospital while some others are treating 800-900 patients during their eight-hour shift.

The Health department officials are not only baffled by such incidents which are literally impossible. The officials went through the prescriptions digitally collected on the Health department’s portal.

During the assessment meeting regarding the outdoor treatment at 28 medical colleges and 27 district hospitals, the health officials expressed shock at how a doctor can see/treat so many patients at such a short time. As per norms, a doctor has to see patients in the hospitals for around 8 hours. If he/she has to see around 900 patients a day, he/she will have to attend so many patients in 480 minutes.

It means that if a doctor devotes his/her entire stay period for the treatment of patients, he/she can attend two patients, examine their health and write their prescriptions within a minute. Contrary to this, in some medical colleges, the number of patients being attended by the doctors per day was pitiably low.

“It takes around 10-20 minutes for a doctor if he/she sees the patients without any haste and writes prescriptions. If the doctors know the case history of the patients, it would take less time. Some of the data that has surfaced is quite appalling. Apparently, there are some irregularities in the prescriptions that were collected on the portal,” a senior health official said. He also mentioned that the state government is spending crores of money to provide best treatment to the patients at the state-run hospitals but there are places where the efforts are not bringing adequate results. It is to be seen if there were faults in the system or there were any irregularities in the prescriptions submitted to the portal.