E-Paper
Form death audit committee at civic body-run Covid hospitals: State to PMC
According to the state directive, the committee must have a hospital superintendent, a physician who is either private practitioner or government doctor, a medical college physician and a public health professional
In line with the formation of a panel by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to carry out death audit of Covid patients, the Maharashtra government has brought a general resolution (GR) directing government hospitals across the state to institute similar panels.
According to the state directive, the committee must have a hospital superintendent, a physician who is either private practitioner or government doctor, a medical college physician and a public health professional.
The state has taken the step after observing a rise in critical cases and deaths despite fall in fresh Covid cases. PMC has constituted the “death audit committee” in its bid to curb the rising death rate of Covid patients. The civic administration has issued guidelines to all its hospitals to form a committee.
The new order makes it mandatory for all PMC-run Covid hospitals to assess and analyse the exact cause of death of patients due to the virus. Though the government released the order on November 5, PMC issued an order for appointment of death audit committees for each of its hospitals two weeks back.
The audit report will carry out factual analysis of death of Covid patients, including age, gender, previous ailments, recovery time, remedial measures, line of treatment adopted by the hospital and survey report of the area where the patient was residing.
Pune mayor Muralidhar Mohol said, “PMC has already issued directions for constituting the committee at each of its hospitals and efforts will be taken to follow necessary compliances. The exercise will give a clearer picture of the disease to the administration.”
Dr Sudhakar Bhoite, a public health professional said, “The new order is yet another step towards bureaucratic handling of the virus. Instead of providing the administration with more funds and manpower, the state government is making them adopt a clerical approach in combating the disease. The government could have instructed the state health department doctors to complete this process rather than burdening the PMC medical staff.”
