Experts warn against late reporting of Covid deaths by hospitals
DEHRADUN: Of the 789 Covid-19related deaths reported in Uttarakhand in five days, about 40% were not reported by hospitals within 24 hours, according to the health department data, with experts warning that hiding or late reporting of data will hinder the fight against the pandemic.
According to the data released by state health department, there were 789 deaths from May 17-21, of which 314 were not reported by various hospitals treating Covid-19 patients within the stipulated 24 hours.
Social activist Anoop Nautiyal who has been analysing the Covid-19 data on daily basis said, “The backlog deaths in the total 789 come to 40%. This hiding or not reporting of deaths by government and private hospitals is not acceptable.”
On Friday, the state reported 70 deaths, excluding 46 which were informed by many hospitals after the stipulated period of 24 hours as per the Covid-19 protocol. On May 20, the total deaths reported were 159, including 79 backlog cases. On May 19, the total deaths were 193, of which 83 were backlog. The state has so far reported total 5600 deaths till Friday.
Terming the hiding of deaths by Covid-19 hospitals as a “complete administrative failure,” Nautiyal said, “It is happening because of the calousness on part of the administration which is not taking enough action against hospitals that are not reporting the deaths within 24 hours. This is very unprofessional.” “In the fight against this severe pandemic, we cannot win against the virus if the data is not accurate and transparent. Data is always sacrosanct as the policies are based on them,” said Nautiyal. “If this is not stopped, we will never come to know the real picture.” National vice president of Indian Medical Association (IMA) Dr DD Choudhury also called the development as failure of administration. “If hospitals are not reporting the exact deaths to the state health department, then that means government is inefficient and not strict,” Choudhury said.
“It is not that govt doesn’t know what is going on in the hospitals, especially the private ones right now. But it is not taking any stern action because some of the owners of those private hospitals have deep connection with high-ranking officials. And in some cases, the senior government officials are not coming to know the reality, because their subordinates at the lower level are hiding things from them,” said Dr Choudhury adding the govt needs to take strict action against hospitals not reporting the deaths on time. The state health department meanwhile, said that it has warned all the hospitals for reporting the deaths within 24 hrs as per the Covid-19 protocol. State health secretary Amit Negi said, “After initial such incidents, we served notice to the hospitals which didn’t report the deaths. We have warned all the hospitals of strict action against not reporting the deaths to state Covid-19 control room.”