E-Paper
Need to strengthen admin set-up of govt hospitals in Delhi: High court panel
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
There is a need to restructure the administrative set-up of government hospitals in the national capital to keep pace with new technology and to streamline the official processes, an expert committee appointed by the Delhi High Court said in its report.
In the 250-page report, the committee said it looked into the challenges in hospitals from the apex level to the primary levels of governance. The outcome of the interactions suggested there is a need for restructuring the set-up keeping in view of the aspirations of the people.
“The expert committee after due deliberation, therefore, suggested structural changes in the chain of command in the healthcare management,” the report said.
The report said DGHS had domain knowledge of healthcare but it had little role in advising the health department on issues related to governance of the 38 secondary and tertiary care healthcare set-ups of the NCT of Delhi.
“The administrators of these hospitals only report to the health and family welfare department, which is headed by the Principal Secretary. The directorate of health services, therefore, has no role to play in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the health service delivery mechanism of the secondary and tertiary level hospitals,” the report said.
Highlighting the problems of hospitals, the committee said one of the main constraints is the limited administrative and financial, delegation of powers to hospital administrators.
The committee noted that some of the Delhi government flagship hospitals are as big as AIIMS or Safdarjung, with common problems of overcrowding, but in terms of administrative and financial powers, they are limited.
“There is therefore a very strong case for delegation of adequate powers to the hospital administrators so as to improve health delivery mechanism, and the expert committee has recommended accordingly,” the report read.
The committee was set up while hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by a Karawal Nagar teacher who had lost her nine-month unborn foetus due to the lack of facilities at a government hospitals.
One of the major problems detailed in the report was the Delhi government hospitals do not have the right of refusal. Informing the condition of Safdarjung hospital, the report said this hospital, like any key government hospitals of Delhi, is overcrowded and the occupancy rate is said to be 140%.
“The most crowded is the department of medicine with 200 beds with bed occupancy of 280%, and it is increasing at the rate of 10% per annum. The paediatric ward with 240 beds has an occupancy of 130%.
“The main reason for the overcrowding is that Safdarjung, like any Delhi government hospital, cannot refuse admissions. The referrals as per the hospital administrator are from all over, specially the small government hospitals located in south Delhi and its periphery,” the committee detailed in the report.
It spoke about the lack of infrastructure in all the hospitals with lack of emergency facilities for patients. The matter is scheduled for December 18 for further hearing.
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The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the Centre, Delhi government and all the civic bodies in the national capital to procure and provide anti-rabies vaccines (ARVs) in sufficient quantities at regular intervals to hospitals run by them in the city. .
