Boost to patient care at Bihar distt hospitals

PATNA: A week after a video of a doctor attending to a patient under the light of a smartphone in Bihar’s Rohtas district went viral, the State Health Society (SHS) on Saturday created a new cell to monitor and evaluate amenities at district hospitals for improved patient care, said officials on Monday.

The SHS, an arm of the state health department, is responsible for the execution of Centre’s initiatives under the national health mission (NHM).

“We have created the cell to upgrade facilities at district hospitals and to regularly monitor them in order to strengthen our health infrastructure at the district level,” said Sanjay Kumar Singh, executive director of the SHSB.

The cell would look after upgrading hospital facilities, including radiology (X-ray and ultrasound), pathology, dialysis, emergency, in-patient department (IPD), bio-medical waste, besides related activities like information, education counselling (IEC), branding, etc., said the SHSB office order which was issued on June 11, but circulated on Monday.

Dr. Abhishek Kumar Singh, an MD in community medicine, will function as its state programme officer. He will work in tandem with Kamal Nayan, administrative officer-cum-incharge of the public-private partnership (PPP) cell, the order said. A video had recently gone viral of a doctor attending to a patient allegedly with a gunshot injury, according to another doctor, under the light of a smartphone at the district hospital in Rohtas, 151 km southwest of Patna, on June 4.

Bihar has 36 district hospitals and 45 sub-divisional hospitals.