Hajipur (Vaishali): Health Minister Nishant has expressed strong displeasure over negligence in health services and unnecessary referral of patients to other hospitals. During a one-day visit to Vaishali district, he made a surprise visit to Hajipur Sadar Hospital and made a detailed review of the emergency, ICU, patient treatment, attendance of doctors and medical staff, distribution of medicines and other arrangements. No patient should be referred without preliminary examination and necessary treatment. The Health Minister first inspected the emergency and ICU wards. They obtained information about duty roster of doctors and medical staff, attendance register and medical facilities provided to patients. Direct interaction with the patients under treatment in the ward also took feedback about the treatment and facilities of the hospital. An elderly patient expressed satisfaction with the medical services available at the hospital.
During the inspection of the minor OT and referral register, the health minister found that some patients were referred to higher centers without completing the preliminary examination and necessary medical procedures. The investigation revealed that Dr. Suman Anand referred Meena Devi without any preliminary examination, while Dr. Ratan Prakash referred a patient named Amit Kumar only on the basis of complaint of abdominal pain without necessary examination. On this, the Minister of Health expressed strong displeasure and said that it is serious negligence to refer patients unnecessarily. He instructed to take necessary action by examining the relevant matters and to keep the records and documents related to the entire process of referral. Also asked to keep the information of beds, medicines and other facilities available in the hospital online and updated on real-time basis, so that the patients do not face unnecessary trouble.
During the inspection, the issue of absence of Dr. Saurabh Prakash posted in the ICU also came to light. According to local information, he was told to go to court. The Health Minister directed the concerned doctor to submit the summons issued by the court and other necessary documents.
The Health Minister also reviewed the drug counter and stock arrangements of the hospital. Meanwhile, it was found that the medicines were being registered online, but the offline stock register was not fully updated. The inspection also found shortages in the stock register of pharmacist Vivekvardhan. Expressing displeasure over this, the Health Minister directed to keep accurate and up-to-date records of medicines through both online and offline sources. He also called for regular review of stocks of other essential and life-saving medicines including anti-rabies vaccine. "Patients should not have any problem."
Health Minister Nishant directed the hospital administration to provide better, quality and timely treatment to every patient. Patients should not face any problem due to administrative or medical negligence. He said that transparency, accountability and sensitivity in health services is the top priority of the government. Hospital management should ensure that patients do not suffer due to unnecessary referrals, unavailability of medicines or any other administrative lapses.