NABH Accreditation at Stake : THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The accreditation of the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH) accorded to the Women and Children Hospital at Thycaud is at stake with the hospital not adhering to many of the NABH standards and guidelines.

 

The Government Women and Children’s Hospital, Thycaud

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 When NABH-accredited hospitals are to provide all facilities to the patients within the hospital, the patients at the Women and Children Hospital are forced to walk out for scan, lab tests and even for buying medicines that are not available.

The construction of the centralised operation theatre, which was one of the facilities that was envisaged as part of getting the NABH accreditation, is yet to start. The theatre that is now functioning is a smaller one with only split AC, whereas NABH calls for a centralised AC system.

The doctors prescribe scan outside the hospital as there is no proper facility at the hospital, sources said. As per the NABH norms, it is mandatory that the patients should be provided such facility within the hospital. They also said that there was a shortage of medicines and even certain base drugs such as ampicillin were not available at the drug store. With no stock of the base and cheap medicines, the doctors are forced to prescribe high-priced drugs, the sources said.  The doctors at the hospital have raised complaints on drug procurement.

When coming to infection control, sources said that there is no proper steriIisation and waste disposal mechanism. Autoclave, which is used for sterilisation of surgical instruments, is not working properly, the sources said and added that there are chances of infections. Apart from this, there are no qualified staff for operating the laundry and the dryer of the laundry had not been functioning for a long time.  It has to be noted that a few days ago there was an allegation that the vaccines were stored in vaccine cases rather than in the fridge. It was only recently that a group of environmentalists wrote to the District Collector, advisor to the Chief Minister and Suchitwa Mission Director with regard to the hospital becoming a dumping ground of waste, especially plastic waste. 

Another important condition that forms part of the NABH accreditation is the responsibility of the management. During holidays, it is learned that the higher officials who manage the hospital go on leave, shifting their responsibility to junior officials. Even though the higher officials who are in the administrative cadre could take leave during holidays on rotation basis, the sources note that it is not done and the whole responsibility to manage about 500 staff is on the juniors.  

When contacted, Health Minister V S Sivakumar said that the issues would be looked into.  Hospital superintendent Jose G D’Cruz was not available for comments.   

The grandma among the government hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram received the NABH accreditation in 2012, becoming the first women and children hospital in the country to get the honour.


Source : The New Indian Express , 30th Sep 2014