Delhi: On surprise inspections, missing senior doctors & dirty bed sheets

New Delhi: Many senior doctors at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital, and Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital were found absent during a surprise inspection conducted by health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Tuesday night. The minister also found the patients lying on dirty and soiled bedsheets in some wards and raised concern that this could spread the infection among patients and visitors.

He instructed the hospital administrations to take appropriate action against the absent doctors. The minister also directed them to change the dirty bedsheets on a priority basis.

During the visit, the health minister instructed the administration to avoid the practice of referring patients directly to big hospitals for treatment and examination. He said, “Instead of referring patients directly to big hospitals, under the Delhi Arogya Kosh (DAK), the hospital administration should try to provide treatment facilities at their level to avoid overcrowding. Small hospitals in Delhi can also send patients to private labs for MRI, CT scans, radionuclide scans, and other tests. This facility is available free of cost under the DAK.”

Bharadwaj instructed that immediate relief be provided to patients in medico-legal cases as soon as the legal process is completed and directed the authorities to remove the clutter and provide affordable and quality healthcare to the patients and improve cleanliness.

The minister reiterated that the hospitals should provide facilities to patients at their own level if they visited in the evening and required any medical tests.

“Health is a priority area for the Delhi government. Therefore, any kind of negligence will not be tolerated in providing health facilities to the people. There should be no compromise on the quality of food provided to patients. Our aim is to make Delhi government hospitals one of the best in the country. Following the instructions of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, the treatment facility is being made more accessible in the hospitals of Delhi. Besides, the existing hospitals are being airconditioned by making necessary changes,” he said.