Rural hospitals follow SOPs: Dir Health on unnecessary referrals to LD

Srinagar, July 19: Despite upgradation in maternity services in the valley, the unnecessary referrals from Kashmir’s rural hospitals continue to overburden LD maternity hospital which has become a grave concern for the patients.
Five years back, the Health and Medical Education Department issued Standard Operating Protocol (SoP) for instituting answerability in healthcare institutes in case of referrals but these are not followed in hospitals and there is no end to unnecessary referrals.
As per doctors, the LD hospital gets non genuine referrals from peripheries which could be managed at rural hospitals. On Wednesday alone, the maternity hospital had received 28 referrals of which only six were genuine while the rest were non-genuine as per officials.
As per the SoP, prepared by GMC Srinagar, a doctor who decides to send a patient to a higher institute has to ensure that the patient reaches the hospital safely.
However, doctors in tertiary care hospitals complain that the SOPs are not being followed as they continue to receive patients who can be easily managed at peripheral hospitals.
“There is no impact of SOPs and these aren’t followed everywhere. We still receive unnecessary referrals and most of these come after 5 p.m.,” said a doctor at LD hospital.
However, Director Health Services Kashmir, Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather said there are many categories of pregnant women and many of them have complications and they need specialized treatment and they are referred to tertiary care hospitals.
He said that tertiary care hospitals are meant to handle complicated patients and cases, and they are not doing the patients a favour by treating them. “The medical colleges and district hospitals are well equipped now and doing a wonderful job,” he said.
The director said that the department closely monitors the referrals and monthly review meetings are held to see referrals and all the concerned stakeholders are taken on board.
“Rarely pregnant women are referred to tertiary care hospitals. There were issues in the past but now things have changed a lot. All the SOPs regarding referrals in rural hospitals are followed in letter and spirit on the ground,” he said.
Health officials said specialist doctors have been posted in the sub-district hospitals. Infrastructure and machinery has also improved. They added that referrals can’t be stopped altogether and it is always in the interest of the patient.
“Though there is a concern we should try to minimize the burden on tertiary care hospitals. Oftentimes there are such cases where we have to make the referral. A patient can’t expect everything to be taken care of at the primary or secondary care level,” they said.