Patna: Health minister Nishant Kumar on Wednesday directed that no patient’s surgery should be unnecessarily delayed. To address the backlog, he ordered that pending surgeries from district medical colleges and hospitals be referred to premier institutions such as IGIMS, AIIMS-Patna and Jay Prabha Medanta Super Specialty Hospital, Patna.District medical colleges have also been asked to immediately submit a complete list of pending surgeries to facilitate a streamlined action plan to eliminate delays.Nishant was chairing a review meeting attended by the principals, superintendents and directors of major medical colleges and healthcare institutions in Patna, including Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology, PMCH, NMCH, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Orthopaedic Hospital and IGIMS. Officials associated with the Ayushman Bharat Yojana and health secretary Kumar Ravi were also present in the meeting.He directed the heads of all medical colleges and hospitals to submit updated data on pending surgeries to the health department by Friday so that, if required, a special campaign can be launched for their speedy disposal.He also directed officials to develop the necessary arrangements to enable specialist doctors from outside the state to provide services at Bihar’s super-specialty hospitals, ensuring that patients can access advanced medical care within the state.To prevent chaotic situations during medical emergencies, Nishant instructed hospitals to increase the number of emergency beds. He also directed the development of a centralised software system to provide real-time information on the exact number of emergency beds available in every state-run hospital, ensuring that critically ill patients can be referred to the appropriate facility without losing precious time.To enhance transparency and improve public access to information, large display boards will be installed outside all hospitals detailing the available departments, specialist doctors, key facilities and surgical services.The health minister emphasised that financial constraints should never become a barrier to quality healthcare. He instructed officials to ensure maximum utilisation of the Chief Minister Relief Fund and the Ayushman Bharat Yojana so that economically weaker patients can undergo expensive and complex surgeries free of cost.Addressing infrastructural bottlenecks, the minister also ordered the expeditious recruitment to fill vacancies for essential personnel, including operation theatre (OT) assistants, OT technicians and data operators, to ensure seamless hospital operations.
