Lucknow’s Balrampur hospital working on improving patient referral process

Doctors at Lucknow’s Balrampur hospital said the idea is to link district hospitals with higher centres for smooth transfer of patients

Aiming to save patients in need of treatment from wandering from one hospital to another, the Balrampur hospital is preparing a plan to integrate district-level hospitals with medical institutes in the state capital.

Once done, the referral process will ensure that there is no waiting time for patients, said doctors at Lucknow’s Balrampur hospital. (Sourced)

“We are planning to bring all the district-level hospitals and higher centres on one platform. So that in case a patient needs treatment at a higher centre, a referral is done after talking to the doctors at the higher centre such as KGMU or PGI,” said Dr GP Gupta, chief medical superintendent of the Balrampur hospital in a press conference on Tuesday.

Hospital director Dr Alok Srivastava said, “The aim is to make sure no patient wanders in search of a bed or treatment. Hence this system will ensure that when a patient goes to the higher centre, they get treatment/admission and do not fall in any trap.”

“Once done, the system will ensure that there is no waiting time,” said Dr Himanshu Chaturvedi, the medical superintendent of the hospital.

Also addressing the press conference, Sunil Kumar and Ashok Kumar, hospital staff and leaders of technical and paramedical staff associations, said, “There is a need to increase the number of paramedical staff and technicians.”

We get patients from across districts, and they come in a hope of better treatment. Some patients need treatment at higher centres because we do not have the facilities needed and this shifting from district-level hospitals to higher centres at times is painful for patients, doctors said.