Swinging into action after the unsavory episode where a baby was delivered in the hospital toilet in the female wing of the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital, the Secretary, Medical Health, Nitesh Jha convened a meeting of senior officials of the health department on Thursday. At the meeting, a series of decisions to bring the things in the biggest hospital of the State into order were taken.
In an important decision, it was decided that patients in excess of the available beds in the hospital would not be admitted. The secretary said that no patient under any circumstances, should not be admitted in gallery or courtyard of the hospital.
A dress code for the patients admitted in the hospital and the members of staff would also be enforced.
Nitesh Jha said that in case of excess patients, 108 -ambulance service would be used to transfer the patients to the nearby government hospitals. For the purpose 108 -emergency ambulance service would be permanently deployed in the hospital. It was decided that patients of Uttarakhand would be treated on priority in the hospital and beds would be made available to the patients coming from Uttar Pradesh or Himachal Pradesh in case emergency only.
The secretary directed that only one attendant per admitted patient should be allowed and for it a pass system should be enforced.
He said that anti social elements making ruckus in the hospital should be identified with the help of Close Circuit TV Cameras (CCTV) and cases against them should be registered.
To oversee day to day functions, the secretary imparted financial and administrative rights to the medical superintendent. A three member committee consisting of MS Dr K K Tamta, Dr K C Pant and Dr Meenakshi Joshi was constituted for expediting routine daily administrative works. The committee would handle activities related with National Health Mission (NHM), sanctioning leaves of staff and their duty roaster.
In an important decision Nitesh Jha said that all the employees of health department should be immediately relieved and process of new appointments in the GDMC should be expedited.
He said that appointments from the outsourcing agencies should be made till permanent appointments are made.
The secretary said that private diagnostic centres should be hired for pathology, radiology and other diagnostic services. He directed that temporary appointment of specialist doctors under National Health Mission ( NHM) should be made till permanent recruitment. Nitesh Jha said that it should be ensured that doctors of all discipline are available after 2 PM. He said that a 25 bed modern Intensive Care Unit ( ICU) should be set up in the hospital.
He said that all the private hospital having facility of safe delivery should be enlisted under the ‘Ayushman Bharat scheme’ so that load on the female wing of GDMC hospital is reduced.
The meeting was also attended by mission director of NHM, Yugal Kishore Pant, director general ( DG) of health, Dr T C Pant, director of medical education, Dr Ashutosh Sayana, director of medical health, Dr Amita Upreti, director of NHM Dr Anjali Nautiyal, MS of GDMC Hospital Dr K K Tamta, Dr K C Pant and Dr Meenakshi Joshi among others.