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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | CAG report puts Delhi government hospitals in a dock

CAG report puts Delhi government hospitals in a dock

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published Published on Apr 3, 2013   modified Modified on Apr 3, 2013
-PTI


The condition of government hospitals in Delhi drew a sharp criticism from Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which, in its report found several glaring shortcomings like unavailability of blood banks in five hospitals.

The CAG today painted a sorry state of affairs at government hospitals in the national capital in its report for the fiscal year ending March 2012, which was tabled in Delhi Assembly.

The government auditor said that scrutiny of records and interaction with patients revealed that many essential drugs are not available at many occasions in hospitals like Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) and Guru Tegh Bahadur.

In GTB, 31 medicines were not available for a month last year while in Rao Tula Ram Memorial hospital, patients complained that they had to purchase medicines from outside.

At Ambedkar hospital, the CAG found that 47 essential drugs were not available on many occasions during a period between 2009 and 2012.

A check of the records of GTB and LNJP hospitals revealed that ambulances remained unutilised most of the time and when it was used it was not for patients most of the time.

"Hospitals have been using ambulances mainly for bringing medicines from the market, dropping doctors at their residences, carrying dead bodies to mortuary and collecting cash from bank etc..." the CAG said.

In a scary note, the auditor also said the ambulances were not equipped with basic life support system such as oxygen cylinders, suction pumps, stethoscopes and first aid boxes.

The report revealed that budgetary and expenditure control in the hospitals were inadequate which meant that money earmarked for heads like 'Machinery and Equipment', 'Supplies and Material' and 'salaries' were left underutilised.

"The OPD services were affected due to shortage of medical equipment, medicines, injections, infrastructure and medical support items. The Emergency Departments were not providing required services due to lack of essential equipment, medicines and adequate staff," it said.

In a glaring shortcomings, it was found that five hospitals did not have blood banks while the license for blood bank was not renewed in GTB hospital.

Almost all hospitals lacked facility of purified, clean drinking water.

Auditors also found that availability of beds in these hospitals was a major concern for patients as average occupancy of beds in almost all wards was well above 100 per cent.

"At times, two to three patients had to be accommodated on a single bed. In LN hospital, there were only 11 beds in main casualty and each bed was occupied by two patients whereas 11 beds in Poly trauma were lying vacant. In medicine emergency ward, two beds were found broken," said the report.

The number of counters and their working hours at government hospitals was inadequate leading to long queues of patients.

In LN, GTB and DDU hospitals, patient trolleys were out of order or not available in the casualty while some trolleys were kept locked and chained in separate hall, the report said.

Auditors observed that many hospitals lacked proper facilities for conducting tests. At places machines were lying idle due to non-availability of trained staff whereas vice versa was also true elsewhere.

Patients had to wait for long for certain test and surgeries in selected hospitals due to unavailability of doctors and trained staff.

At Ambedkar hospital, waiting period for Ultrasound General was two months while for Colour Doppler it was eight months. At Lal Babadur Shastri hospital, patients have to wait for six months for ENT and two to three months for Surgery.

Hospitals also registered high non-utilisation of blood. "It was observed that hospitals discarded 1.6 to 9.9 per cent of blood from 2008 to September 2012. Particularly in the year 2010, 9.9 per cent (3258 units) of blood expired, which was on a higher side," the report said.


The Economic Times, 2 April, 2013, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/cag-report-puts-delhi-government-hospitals-in-a-dock/articleshow/19347653.cms


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