- Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s government has taken stringent steps to curb reckless patient referrals in government hospitals.
- On Monday, Health Secretary Dr. R. Rajesh Kumar held a detailed review meeting with Chief Medical Officers and hospital heads from all 13 districts at the Secretariat auditorium.
- The meeting aimed to make hospital operations more transparent, accountable, and patient-centered by ensuring every patient referral is justified and supervised.
- Uttarakhand’s government, under Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s direction, is cracking down on unnecessary patient referrals in state-run hospitals to prevent endangering lives due to avoidable transfers.
- Health Secretary Dr. R. Rajesh Kumar expressed serious concern about common practices where patients are referred without valid reasons, often because of mismanagement or lack of resources at hospitals.
- It has been mandated that every referral must have a solid, documented justification and must be countersigned by the hospital’s Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS), making CMS directly accountable for such decisions.
- Any deviation from this protocol or insufficient justification will lead to immediate disciplinary action against responsible officers.
- To standardize referral practices, Dr. Rajesh Kumar instructed the Health Directorate to develop a clear and uniform Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for referrals to be implemented across all districts.
- Emergency medical services were also discussed, with emphasis on ensuring patients receive timely transport even if the 108 ambulance or departmental ambulances are unavailable.
- Local hospitals are tasked to arrange alternative transport immediately, utilizing available government resources, with Chief Medical Officers and CMS responsible for organizing such local emergency networks in advance.
- Addressing the persistent issue of families struggling to transport deceased patients due to lack of mortuary or hearse vehicles, hospital administrations and CMOs must now ensure proper arrangements to deliver bodies respectfully without burdening families.
- The Health Secretary issued clear orders to send ‘show cause’ notices to doctors who received transfer orders post-PG training on June 13 but have not yet joined their assigned posts.
- Non-compliance with service terms will not be tolerated, and disciplinary measures will be enforced against such doctors as needed.
- Besides Dr. Rajesh Kumar, the meeting included Health Director General Sunita Tamta, Directors Dr. Shikha Jangpagi and Dr. C.P. Tripathi, Under secretary Anoop Mishra, and other senior health officials.
- These reforms aim to enhance hospital accountability, accelerate medical emergency responses, and reduce undue hardships on patients and their families across Uttarakhand’s public health facilities.
