Civil surgeons asked about guidelines followed in ICUs

CHANDIGARH: The Health Department has asked civil surgeons about the guidelines being followed in intensive care units (ICUs) and pre-operative and post-operative units for furnishing an affidavit before the Supreme Court even though there are no such specialised facilities in most of the districts.

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 20

The Health Department has asked civil surgeons about the guidelines being followed in intensive care units (ICUs) and pre-operative and post-operative units for furnishing an affidavit before the Supreme Court even though there are no such specialised facilities in most of the districts.

Doctors say that even otherwise the guidelines are framed and issued at the headquarters and asking civil surgeons in the districts to provide information is not understandable.

The office of the Director General of Health Services, in a letter sent to the civil surgeons earlier this month, has mentioned that an affidavit is to be filed before the Supreme Court in the case of Asit Mondal and other verses Rita Sinha and other.

The letter mentions that on July 18, a letter was written to the civil surgeons asking them to supply information about the guidelines being followed during the treatment of patients in intensive care units (ICUs), critical care units (CCUs) and at the pre-operative and post-operative stage in their districts, but no information has been received.

“In most of the districts, there are no functional ICUs, CCUs or specialised pre-operative and post-operative units. We neither have the manpower nor the set up.

The infrastructure is so poor that most of the emergencies are referred to medical colleges or even private hospitals as and when these are received,” says a senior government doctor.

Another deputy civil surgeon-level officer alleges that senior department officers know everything but yet they are doing this exercise to shun the responsibility of the contents of the affidavit. “The guidelines, if any, are to be given by superiors to the districts and not vice-versa. However, our department merely wants an eyewash exercise by filing an affidavit before the Supreme Court and that too by shifting onus on the districts,” he says.

Efforts to contact Director General of Health Services Satish Agarwal on his phone proved futile.

He even did not respond to a WhatsApp message sent to him along with a copy of the letter and inputs about ICUs, CCUs and pre-operative and post-operative units in the possession of The Tribune.