Hospitals have to share Covid patients’ info with kin daily: Govt

Bhubaneswar: The state government on Tuesday asked all hospitals — government and private — to update relatives of Covid patients on their condition at least once a day, even if not asked to do so, through WhatsApp and text messages. For this, dedicated helpdesks will have to be set up by the hospitals.
Additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, in a notification, said each Covid care facility has to mandatorily establish round-the-clock helpdesks with dedicated telephone numbers. There must be enough staff in these centres to attend to all calls to provide information to the relatives of patients admitted. The numbers will be displayed and shared with the attendants.
“Apart from telephonic communication, the helpdesk shall use social media like WhatsApp to communicate voice notes and pictures of patients with their attendants,” the notification said. The government said the hospitals would collect the phone numbers of the attendants when the patient is admitted and update them with general information about the patient’s condition either through SMS or WhatsApp at least once daily.
The government also advised hospitals to have dedicated conference room outside the Covid-19 facility with provision of TV and camera, which can be connected with CCTVs installed inside the hospitals, so that an attendant can see his or her patient and talk to him/her.
The government said in case hospitals that offer free treatment to patients and get the cost reimbursed from the government failed to provide information to patients’ kin, the government would withhold the monetary claims made by the hospitals against such patients. The government has tied up with private hospitals for free facilities in all 30 districts.
A technical committee of the heath department will decide on complaints from attendants regarding non-sharing of patient information by the hospitals. “Compliance with the helpdesk is directly related to the overall satisfaction of the patient as well as the attendants. Non-compliance with the same shall be seriously viewed and shall be considered as negligence in duty for the patient concerned,” the government said.
The government has asked the hospitals to comply with the order within a week and intimate the helpline number to it.
The ACS-health, when contacted by TOI, said the decision was taken in view of complaints from patients’ relatives that they were not getting any information on status of the patients. “Since attendants are not allowed inside Covid hospitals, both patients and attendants are anxious,” he said.
The attendant of a patient admitted in a Covid hospital in city welcomed the move. “This should have been done when the hospitals started admitting Covid patients. My father has been admitted for three days. It’s impossible to know whether he is improving,” said the 23-year-old resident of Patia area in city.
Private hospitals too welcomed the move. “This is good. We already have dedicated Covid helpline through which patients are talking to their kin on a daily basis,” said a spokesperson of AMRI Hospitals.
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