Hyderabad: Sixty six patients involved in medico-legal cases and were admitted at the Osmania General Hospital (OGH) were found missing the next day, from January to September 2015. Medico-legal cases involve patients who are injured in road accidents, burn victims and also abuse victims.
But after admission, these patients were not found in the ward the next day and this has forced them to be marked as absent in the in-patient card.
A senior doctor of OGH said, “The medico-legal cases are well taken care of but sometimes due to rush the patients go away without signing documents and then we have to mark them as absent.”
“There have been problems in the case of mentally challenged and physically challenged patients whose relatives have left them in the hospital and gone away. In these cases, when patients go away tracing them becomes very difficult,” the doctor said
Of the 66 missing patients eight could be traced.
Rajeshwar Kanugula, who is working for medico-legal cases explained, “There is a strong need to place CCTV cameras in the corridors so that the movement of patients can be tracked. How come so many patients go away? Why do they not complete treatment? These are questions that must be looked into.”
Superintendent Dr Raghu Ram explained, “There are too many entry and exit points at the hospital. We are trying to provide security so that these absentees can be controlled.”
Another doctor explained that there are so many patients that many a time those who have only minor injuries simply go away without signing papers.
