Curb recommendation of patients: AIIMS doctors

New Delhi: Irritated with the recommendations and referrals from lawmakers to secure admission or prepare bed for patients coming from other hospitals, doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here revealed that nearly two to four thousand recommendations have been issued to the hospital every day.

Resident doctors at AIIMS Delhi have appealed to MPs and MLAs across the country not make such recommendations, adding that if politicians really want to help the patients, they should write a letter to the Prime Minister and Union Health Minister, asking them to improve the condition of healthcare system in their respective areas.

Taking note of the issue, the Resident Doctors' Association of AIIMS requested that patients from other states should demand better healthcare facilities in their respective areas from the concerned ministers, instead of a recommendation letter asking to be admitted at AIIMS.

"Tertiary care hospitals have limited beds and facilities. So its your disease which will gets consideration for admission and not the letters from the lawmakers," a member of the AIIMS RDA said.

RDA president Harjit Singh requested MLAs and MPs that before sending any recommendation letter to the tertiary care hospital, they should "kindly send a copy of it to the Prime Minister's Office and Union Health Ministry," demanding the same facilities of healthcare in their respective areas, which they think is only available in the tertiary care hospitals.

Singh added that it would be better to provide such medicare faciliies in remote areas, instead of sending patients from these areas to metropolitan cities.

He also raised the point that if these recommendation letters would reach the PMO, things will definitely improve in remote areas too.

"On Tuesday, a Delhi MP wrote a recommendation letter for the treatment of kidney patients. After this letter, resident doctors of AIIMS said that the patient is not able to get treatment, but he faced a problem. MPs and MLAs write letters to give false solutions to the patient," said Dr Vijay Gujjar, said former president of the AIIMS RDA.

Doctors at the premier healthcare institution suggest it would be better if all these lawmaker pay heed to the condition of medical care system in their respective constituencies, and providing machines for MRI, CT scan and dialysis setups, instead of giving recommendation letters.