Govt prepares checklists to improve emergency care services in hospitals

CHECKLISTS HAVE BEEN PREPARED FOR CONDITIONS LIKE HEART ATTACK, RESPIRATORY DISTRESS, ROAD MISHAP, HEAD INJURY AND BURN CASES

NEW DELHI: In an effort to revamp the way its hospitals provide emergency care services, the Delhi government has prepared standard operating procedures for the most common types of patients coming into the emergency department.

Checklists have been prepared for conditions like heart attack, respiratory distress, road traffic accident, head injury and burn cases.

“A set of checklists have been circulated in all our hospitals, which the doctors can consult and follow to minimise error. For example – out of a list of parameters, if a patient shows two ail- ments, the instruction would be that the doctor on duty consult a senior, if they show three, the doctor is instructed to get in touch with a consultant from a particular speciality, if they show four of the parameters, they might have to be transferred to a higher centre,” explained Dr Kirti Bhushan, Delhi’s director general of health services.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had directed the health department to create these standard operating procedures in September.

The Delhi government runs 33 hospitals, of which four — Lok Nayak, Guru Teg Bahadur, Baba Saheb Ambed and Deen Dayal Upadhyay — are equipped to deal with the complicated emergencies and severe trauma cases.

All the hospitals together attend to around 8,000 to 10,000 patients in the emergency department each day.

The government is also in talks with IT department to develop a website where there could be a real-time update of the availability of ward beds, ICU and ventila- tor beds and any other special services at its hospitals.

“This should happen in the next two months,” said Bhushan.

In the meantime, the government plans to provide fixed cellphone numbers at all its emergency departments so that the hospitals can check for the availability of a particular service before referring a patient.

The CM had said in September that in case a hospital needs to refer a patient or refuse admission for a justified reason, the onus will be on the hospital to find out which other hospital has the facility available and then refer the patient. The doctor on duty also has to ensure that an ambulance is provided, the CM had said.