♦ When Trilochan Singh (45), a resident of Dhurwa, Ranchi, reached premier state-run hospital RIMS around 5pm on Thursday with high fever, emergency doctors refused to treat him, asking him to come to the OPD on Friday
♦ Jamila Khatoon (60), who also came to RIMS in a state of dehydration on Thursday, was initially refused treatment, but when accompanying family members said she was following roza and needed immediate attention, a doctor in emergency prescribed her medicines
Premier state-run hospital RIMS, Ranchi, has taken a tough stand to screen patients at its emergency unit in evenings to prevent overcrowding on its premises, get more time to handle complex cases and delegate the rest to the state dispensary, community health centres and sadar hospital.
Admitting the decision had been taken to streamline the flow of patients at RIMS, acting director Dr R.K. Srivastava told The Telegraph: "RIMS is the centre to treat complex and difficult cases. We cannot keep on treating common ailments. For those, there is the state dispensary in Doranda and community health centres in Kanke, Ormanjhi and Namkum, and Ranchi Sadar Hospital."
Dr Srivastava said emergency doctors had not been given any clear-cut instruction on who to treat and who not to but an "understanding has been developed within the fraternity on the kind of patients who need emergency aid".
He pointed out that RIMS admits around 1,300 patients against existing 1,098 beds and is staff crunched.
But, would turning down a patient, whose only priority is relief from suffering, be easy?
"Doctors at the emergency will decide whether a patient needs emergency attention or not," Dr Srivastava said. "Also, we will treat patients referred from the tertiary health centres," he added.
Told that Dhurwa man Singh was turned away, Dr Srivastava said he should have gone to the Doranda state dispensary first. "Let RIMS be the centre to treat complex cases and let others handle the simpler ones. If we entertain common ailments, we will have less time for patients who need emergency attention."
Injection overdose
RIMS matron Vijaya Lakshmi has sought an explanation from a trainee nurse who on Friday morning injected an anaesthetic overdose to a seven-year-old boy admitted to the orthopaedic ward. The boy, whose condition had deteriorated in the afternoon, is stable now.
