Odisha hospitals have to update Covid patients’ condition to relatives everyday

BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Tuesday asked all hospitals—government and private—to update Covid patients’ conditions to their relatives at least once a day even if not asked for through WhatsApp and text messages by establishing dedicated helpdesks.
Additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, in a notification, said each Covid care facility have to mandatorily establish round-the-clock help desk with dedicated telephone numbers. There must be enough staff in these centres to attend all calls to provide information to near and dear ones of patients admitted in the hospitals.
“Apart from telephonic communication, the helpdesk shall use social media like WhatsApp to communicate the voice and pictures of the patients to their attendants,” the notification said. The government said the hospitals will collect the phone number of the attendants when the patient is admitted and update them with general information about the patient’s condition either as SMS or WhatsApp message every day.
The government said in case hospitals, which offer free treatment to patients and get the cost reimbursed from the government, fail to provide information to patients’ kin, the government will withhold monetary claims made by the hospital against such patients. For any violation of the provision, the government shall initiate action against the erring hospitals.
The government has asked the hospitals to comply with the order within a week and intimate the helpline number to the government.
Inspired By