“No referral from CMO, no admission in hospital”: Diktat in UP as patients die at hospital doorsteps

“Go get a referral from Chief Medical Officer’s office and then only we can admit the patient,” said the receptionist at the Integral Medical College in Lucknow to Vivek Kishore whose father was gasping for breath. He has covid like symptoms. Vivek did not wait for the ambulance and brought his father to hospital with a hope to get timely treatment.

Before he could call his relatives and tell them about the procedure, his father died in his car at the door steps of the hospital waiting for treatment.

“This referral system is cruel. It is virtually denying treatment to the patients. There are reports that hundreds of patients have died either at the gate of the hospital or at the stairs of the CMO office waiting for the referral slip from the CMO.” Shalabh Chaudhry, a government employee who lost his neighbor while arranging a slip said.

“This is disgusting … why cannot the government allow hospitals to take in patients if they have beds,” he said.

An administrator of the private hospital said that they are not allowed to take patients without the referral slip. “We know this is draconian procedure and is against the spirit of imparting treatment to the patients. We have seen patients dying in the waiting area … but we cannot help because they do not have the referral slip,” he said.

Two days back, some relatives of the patients created a ruckus outside CMO’s office when they were denied referral slips. The police were called to quell the violent crowd. “My mother died waiting for treatment in our car … and these people are saying 'paper le kar aao’ (bring papers),” Satish Mishra, an advocate in High Court said..

“This is nothing but a jungle raj … the system has collapsed,” he said.

A few days ago, BJP MP Kaushal Kishore too had voiced the same anger and frustration saying : “People are dying waiting for referral slip … the government should withdraw this order.”

The situation is so desperate that early this week, a youth lay down before the car of the CMO demanding that his mother should be admitted in hospital and required papers should be given to him immediately. He did not budge till he was given the letter.

On last Monday, Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed “red-tapism” alleging that lives were lost because Covid patients needed permission from the district chief medical officers to get admission in hospitals.

She even wrote a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urging him to withdraw this order. “Patients are waiting for hospitalisation for a long time and their families are running around from one place to another”, she said. “Many people have lost their lives due to this system," the letter in Hindi read.

The Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission has asked the Yogi government to review its decision regarding this referral system. “Doctors working in hospitals are competent enough to judge whether a patient needs immediate admission or not.

“The patient needs treatment not a referral letter from CMO’s office,” the UPHRC said.

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