The leading MNJ government cancer hospital in Hyderabad is lacking proper mechanism to maintain records of cancer patients because of which it is becoming difficult for the hospital authorities to compile the data of the incidence of actual burden of cancer from the government sector.
According to hospital sources, the hospital has no personnel to tabulate the data of cancer patients except the medical case sheets of patients who are part of research thesis by the medical students which are fed into computers. Whereas majority of the medical records are dumped in a store room without updating the data into the computers.
This clearly shows the state government’s commitment towards improvement of healthcare sector in the state. “Though the government is talking of providing super specialty healthcare in the government hospitals, the way the medical record sheets of the patients are stored and stacked carelessly, it shows the indifferent attitude towards the healthcare in the state.
Recently, the government had introduced the e-Aushadi system to record the disease profile of the patients, diagnosis, name of the doctor and medical prescription and medicines offered to the patients. However, this is not effectively being implemented and the hospital is still following the old method of maintaining the records and dumping them in the store rooms carelessly. If any patient wants to know about their case sheets or if any research students want to retrieve the patient case sheet to study it as part of their research, these records are not retrieved at all as they have already been eaten by the pests,” informed a senior oncologists from the MNJ hospital.
According to healthcare experts, the MNJ is the only leading hospital in the government sector that is providing free cancer treatment to millions of poor patients suffering from the cancer related diseases in the state. However, the pathetic conditions and improper maintenance of record rooms tell the real story of the state of the hospital.
Experts felt that, in today’s world, the electronic maintenance of patient’s records is very important as it will give the exact data of number of cases of cancer patients prevailing in the state. Moreover this data will also help the researchers, pharma companies and policy makers to take important decisions to bring in vital solutions to mitigate the prevalence of cancer in the country.