Bengaluru: Patients will no longer have to wait for an official to visit their hospital wards to be able to communicate their complaints, demands or appreciation. They will soon be able to send their responses on WhatsApp groups that are being formed to assist them. Three prime Covid-designated government hospitals, namely Victoria, Bowring and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, are set to have a dedicated WhatsApp group for each ward.

The decision came after senior bureaucrats along with Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar visited the three hospitals. A senior government official stated that a decision was taken on such groups since the officials cannot enter the wards to assess the situation. The groups will be monitored by in-charge hospital superintendents, nodal officers at each hospital and ministers in charge.

The official mentioned that the cleaners and staffers are scared to enter these wards. Officials are unaware of how the patients are being treated and whether they are even being attended to or not. Besides monitoring wards through CCTV cameras, the patients will have this platform to express directly.

Once a patient is admitted, he/she will be added to the WhatsApp group and soon after discharge, they will be deleted from the group. The official added that patients or their family members can also report directly to officials and the issues will be addressed immediately. The way the hospital staff is handling the patients will also become known.

Dr Nagaraja C, Director, RGICD, stated that all data is uploaded on the portal and shared with the government, and the government decides what needs to be done. Dr Ramesh K N, nodal officer, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, said that there are no WhatsApp groups yet, and he isn’t aware of any government decision.

Source: The New Indian Express