Ensure no patient faces hardship, Rights panel to health authorities
The Haryana Human Right Commission has directed the health authorities of the state to ensure that no patient faced hardship in the health institutions while getting treatment.
This decision has been taken after the Commission received a complaint filed by Ashish, a resident of Karnal. Ashish had stated to the Commission that doctors at Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College, Karnal, did not check patients by turn. They attended to their relatives and friends without giving tokens/numbers, demanding strict action from the Commission in this regard.
Since the matter was related to health services, the Commission took strict cognisance of the matter and the case came up in the double bench of the Commission, comprising Chairman Justice Lalit Batra and member Kuldeep Jain.
“Basic medical facilities are the basic human rights of a citizen. When the government spends a lot of budget on health services, basic medical facilities should be made easily available to the people of the state. The Commission believes that there is always a scope for improvement in the system, so in this regard, a report was also sought from the Director General, Health Services, Haryana, Panchkula, on the points about the system adopted in the OPDs of government hospitals and dispensaries,” said the Chairman in his decision.
“Though the complaint raises a specific case of treatment being rendered to the patients at the KCGMC, Karnal, it shall be equally desirable that similar kinds of hardships/problems, if any, being faced by patients in other government hospitals in Haryana are required to be looked into in right earnest,” said the Commission in its order.
The Chairman also directed the authorities to check if the first-come-first-serve process was followed in the hospitals or not, is any gadget (display board) installed in the hospital to manage the crowd of patients, are basic facilities like water, toilets, fans available near the OPD area/waiting area of hospitals?
Commission's Information and Public Relations Officer Dr Puneet Arora said in compliance with the guidelines of the Commission, a report was also sought from the authorities concerned of the KCGMC.
After the Commission took cognisance of the matter, an inquiry was conducted by the committee of doctors of the above hospital in the matter raised by the complainant. The committee investigated in relation to "punctuality, unprofessionalism, negligence in treatment, VIP treatment to friends and relatives".
