Removing hurdle to patient care

The procedural tangles and some outdated practices in government offices are enough to prevent ordinary people from receiving government services and benefits on time. One such practice was the condition imposed on allotting rooms to patients in the KHRWS pay wards functioning in major government hospitals in the State, including medical colleges. A room could be booked there only if the patient’s monthly income was above Rs 1,600. The income was determined on the basis of what was recorded on the OP ticket. Many people disclose a very low income when taking an OP ticket. It is only when the need arises to book a pay ward room that many realise the problem this creates. Correcting the income recorded at such a low level later involved several procedural hurdles.

In a medical college hospital, an application had to be submitted to the hospital superintendent. Permission then had to be obtained from the law secretary. The documents then had to be taken to the medical records section of the hospital. In hospitals, the basic details recorded on OP tickets are not entered directly by the patient or the person accompanying them. The employees who fill out the tickets ask for the information. Some employees may ask only whether the person has a government job. If the answer is no, they may simply write down an amount that comes to mind at the time. Patients and their relatives may not pay attention to any of this when a doctor later says that the patient needs to be admitted, prompting the relatives to rush to the pay ward. Compared with the exorbitant room rents charged by private hospitals, the amount collected in KHRWS pay wards is very small.

Even at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital, the daily room rent for an A-type pay ward is only Rs 400. A super deluxe room costs Rs 600. We know the crowding in general wards of government hospitals and the difficulty patients face in getting a bed allotted. In many places, two people may have to claim the same bed. On some occasions, patients may have to lie under beds, on the floor and even in corridors. In such a situation, the person accompanying the patient may have no option but to take a room in an outside private lodge at a higher cost to rest and attend to basic needs. This hardship caused by the low income recorded on the OP ticket has now been addressed with a single decision.

Health Minister K. Muraleedharan has instructed the Principal Secretary of the Health Department to issue an order allowing everyone to be given rooms in KHRWS pay wards without an income limit. Once the order is issued, patients will be able to book pay ward rooms without an income limit in hundreds of government hospitals across the State, including medical college hospitals, district hospitals and general hospitals. This problem, which can be resolved with a single order, could have been addressed much earlier. The Minister said the reform was part of making hospitals more patient-friendly. There are many such situations of hardship in government hospitals that need to come to the Minister’s attention. The government should not delay in appointing a special committee to examine and study such issues and make government hospitals as people-friendly as possible.