Sanath Nagar ESI Hospital has no information on OP procedures: RTI

Hyderabad: A Right to Information (RTI) application was filed by a Hyderabad-based RTI activist to the all Indian states seeking what is the process of a patient’s visit to an Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Hospital.

To the online application that was filed on May 13, four states, including Telangana, have replied, so far. However, to the surprise of the applicant, Galibe Vishal, the reply from Telangana was “information not available”. Meanwhile, Haryana, Lucknow and Jharkhand are the other states that replied to the RTI application.

“This is very important information that would help lakhs of people. They don’t need to be at the mercy of the ESI staff who are mostly rude with the patients. When states like Haryana, Lucknow and Jharkhand gave me detailed list on what is the procedure to be followed by a patient during visit to the hospital. The Telangana CPIO office said no such information is available with them,” said Galibe Vishal to NewsMeter.

The detailed answer provided by the other states, mostly in bulletin points is as follows

1. Patient need to first visit an ESI dispensary

2. With the referral slip from the dispensary, the patient will report to ESIC hospital at the registration counter

3. From the registration counter, the patient will be directed to respected Out Patient Department (OPD)

4. Consultation with the concerned doctor

5. Medicine from the dispensary or hospital pharmacy

6. Follow-up as per prescription

7. Admission if required

8. If any suspicion of any type of cancer, or diseases where a specialist is not available at the specific ESI hospital, the patient will be investigated at the hospital or a tie-up hospital.

9. When treatment is advised by the physician, the patient will report back to the ESI hospital for reference slip for particular prognosis

10. Subsequent treatment or therapy is given by tie-up hospital on a cashless basis.

Vishal has gone on an appeal on his RTI application to the Telangana CPIO for further details.

Meanwhile, when NewsMeter contacted the Sanathnagar ESI hospital superintendent Dr K.K. Pal, he said, “The procedures we follow is like in any ESI hospitals in other states. If someone is not answered for their RTI query, that doesn’t mean the information is hidden. The CPIO replies only when an answer is readily available. You can ask the same question more specifically or in a different way.”