50 percent referrals are uncertain; 17000 patients seen in LD OPD in June month alone this year: Officials
Srinagar, Jul 27: The Valley’s lone maternity hospital known as Lal Ded hospital in Srinagar continues to get normal cases from peripheries which otherwise could easily be managed at lower-rung hospitals at district and sub-district levels.
Doctors posted at LD hospital told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that LD hospital is Kashmir’s largest tertiary care Gynaecology and Obstetrics facility but that doesn’t mean “you have to refer every case here to put pressure on limited resources.”
They said that despite government orders to avoid unnecessary referrals, they continue to receive 20-40 referral cases per day and among them only 50 percent are genuine while as 50 percent are uncertain and can be easily managed at Primary Health Centre, Sub district hospitals and district hospitals.
The doctors further said that besides unnecessary referrals, pregnant ladies themselves come here for check-ups from very far off places who can get easily visit peripheral hospitals in their districts.
Patients from Lolab, Gurez, Keran and far off places of other hospitals are coming here themselves for check-ups once they pregnant but they can avail this facility at SDH and District hospitals where gynaecologists are posted already.
They said that these pregnant ladies come here for ante-natal check-ups to get LD card and come here for regular check-ups to put pressure on OPD as well.
“This is being done so that whenever they have labour pain, they get admit themselves here without being called as referrals. Despite that most of them have normal delivery which can be easily managed at peripheral hospitals,” a doctor at LD said wishing not to be named.
A senior doctor at LD told KNO that around 17000 patients were treated in OPD of the hospitals
He said that around 3500 deliveries were carried out at the hospital in June month and among them 800 were referral cases. Among 3500 deliveries, around 1300 were C-section cased and most of the cases among rest 2200 were normal deliveries—(KNO)