The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Medical college to restrict entry of visitors

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 10, 2007
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Medical college to restrict entry of visitors

Staff Reporter

Pass system to be discontinued from January 1

New system will be similar to the existing one at SAT Hospital
Doctors say crowd is unmanageable in the hospital wards

Thiruvananthapuram: The Medical College Hospital (MCH), Thiruvananthapuram, is scrapping the pass system at the hospital which lets in visitors in unrestricted numbers to the wards at all hours of the day.

It has been proposed that a new system which restricts the number of visitors and the visiting hours be imposed from January 1.

The new system will be similar to the existing one at SAT Hospital, which restricts the number of visitors per patient as well.

A new pass system was introduced at SAT Hospital following the outbreak of infection in the neonatal unit there, when it became evident that crowding was one of the primary reasons for the infection, which led to the death of several newborns.

Though there were some initial resistance to this system, the hospital managed to sustain the practice.

Earlier, if some 5,000 visitors used to frequent the wards on a daily basis, it have been brought down to 1,500 now.

The pass system was a major source of income for the hospital development committee of SAT Hospital, generating an annual revenue of Rs.36 lakh.

Improved hygiene

“However, the decision to give up this revenue paid off in many other ways. The wards are much quieter and less crowded and hygiene levels have also gone up,” Superintendent of SAT Hospital Zulfickar Ahmed said.

Though there had been a general demand from doctors at the time that restrictions be placed on visitors at all major government hospitals and medical college hospitals, it could not be implemented.

Minister’s backing

The doctors and administrators at the MCH have the firm backing of Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy to push through the new proposal for restricting visitors.

Following SAT Hospital, the MCH, Kozhikode, too successfully implemented a new pass system restraining visitors.

At present, using a Rs.2 pass, people are allowed entry to the wards at all hours and there is no time limit for their stay also.

Many who enter the wards in the morning loiter around the hospital till evening. The MCH also does not have enough security staff to patrol the wards and ensure that visitors are not over-stepping the time limit.

The hospital development committee of the MCH gets a daily revenue of around Rs.10,000 from the existing pass system.

However, the Health Minister is quite keen on improving hospital hygiene in all government health-care facilities and restricting visitors has to be the first step towards this, MCH Superintendent A. Nizaruddin said.

Doctors point out that crowd is quite unmanageable inside the hospital wards and that during the rounds, doctors find it extremely difficult to examine patients.

Lack of common spaces

The lack of common spaces like dining rooms, rest rooms or separate toilets for visitors makes matters worse. Visitors end up sharing the amenities meant for patients, overloading the system and hospital corridors become dining spaces.

The Trivandrum Medical College Alumni Association has also now offered to step in to improve public amenities at the MCH.

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