Set of SOPs to fix responsibility in the ‘referral system’

The State Government has come up with a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to be strictly followed by hospitals dealing with COVID patients while referring them to other hospitals, whenever necessary.

The SOPs state that no patient should be referred if he/she can be treated at the existing facility, the patient’s condition should be stabilised before taking a call on shifting or referring to other hospital, ambulance should be provided to shift the patient to the referral hospital and availability of the required procedures, specialists and treatment should be confirmed at the referral hospital before shifting the patient.

The SOP also mandates that a bed and a doctor at the receiving hospital be kept ready prior to the arrival of the patient and that treatment should start immediately without waiting for the admission procedures to be completed as the patient had already been enrolled at the prior facility.

Referral card

To fix accountability, a referral card has been introduced that will have to be filled before a patient is referred to another hospital, with a detailed information about his/her health condition.

The district health officials have been directed to conduct a ‘referral analysis’ of each hospital every fortnight and the State-level officials will scrutinize the reports submitted by them every month.

“Accountability will be fixed at the District Medical and Health Officer level in the event of any lapse in following the SOP. The referral system should start from the village and ward level rather than the Primary Health Centre level,” said Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.