NEW DELHI: As many as 13 hospitals including Centre-run, those administered by the Delhi government and civic corporations governed will meet this week, to formulate a policy for referring patients coming to their emergency.
Taking a lead on this initiative, AIIMS New Delhi has called the medical superintendents of these hospitals for a meeting on Saturday. The development has come after an internal meeting AIIMS held earlier this month, which this newspaper had reported, where the hospital discussed the need to develop a mechanism for the referral of stable patients from its emergency to other government hospitals in its vicinity.
According to an office memorandum seen by the newspaper, for this meeting, the premiere medical institute has invited chiefs from GB Pant, RML, Safdarjung, LNJP Hospital, Charak Palika, Acharya Shree Bhikshu Hospital, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Hospital, Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya, LHMC and Kalawati Saran Child Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, and ILBS Hospital
According to AIIMS, the move is taken citing the inconvenience faced by critical patients in absence of a formal referral mechanism between the government-run hospitals which is induced either due to the lack of bed strength or super-speciality service in these hospitals.
“The Emergency Department of AIIMS, New Delhi is handling around 600 patients a day which has both critical and non-critical cases. AIIMS also receives a referral of critical patients from government hospitals which they are not able to handle either due to lack of super speciality department or due to constraint of bed in the hospital,” the apex hospital mentioned in the note.
“There is no formal referral mechanism between the Government hospitals of Delhi for stable patients and the patients face inconvenience having to move from one hospital to another in search of a bed. To work towards patient safety and wellbeing, it is imperative to make a system of referral for stable patients between Government hospitals in Delhi,” it added.