Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Poor crowd-control a worry at MCH

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital has been slowly upgrading its patient care and administrative systems, in tune with its ongoing development project – the Rs.120-crore Prime Minister’s Swasthya Suraksha Yojana – lack of a proper crowd control mechanism continues to affect the institution’s day-to-day functioning.

The recent incidents of assaults on doctors by patients and those who accompany them have once again brought to the forefront the need to strengthen the security system and to keep the number of visitors to the hospital under check.

However, apart from reiterating the need for a safer work environment, neither the doctors nor the government has been able to suggest a fool-proof solution for maintaining peace on the campus and for keeping the anti-social elements out.

It was following the assault on a duty doctor at the casualty wing last week that the MCH authorities, in consultation with the City Police Commissioner, decided to have a permanent aid post with two police personnel at the wing.

The presence of the police personnel and the hospital’s security staff did not prevent a group of youth from attacking the duty doctor again last week.

“Rather than more security personnel, what we need is some proper systems in place. The basic problem continues to be the lack of a referral system, because of which MCH ends up handling twice or thrice the volume of patients that it can actually handle. Resources are poor, doctors are overworked and when the public does not get the level of care they expect, tempers are bound to run high,” MCH Superintendent A. Nizaruddin pointed out.

On an average, 1,200 patients turn up at the casualty wing alone every day. However, except for some 200 cases that require tertiary level emergency care, the rest can be easily handled by the general hospitals. But the emergency care systems in these hospitals are sometimes not adequately supported by 24-hour diagnostic or blood bank facilities and hence during emergencies, regardless of the nature or seriousness of injuries, the victims are rushed to the MCH.

“Every patient is brought in by at least five or six persons in a highly emotional state and we cannot turn them away. Another problem is the acute shortage of paramedical staff . If we insist that no relatives of patients should be allowed into the casualty, we should have adequate paramedical staff to take care of the patients,” Dr. Nizaruddin said.

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