The CAG report aimed to assess the overall health services being provided by district hospitals.
In an embarrassment for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has been at the state's top job for close to 15 years at a stretch now, a new report has revealed that the state was woefully unprepared for the Covid pandemic. A performance audit on the functioning of district hospitals in Bihar has revealed that just as the Covid pandemic hit the country, there was a 52 to 92 per cent shortfall of beds in district hospitals and a persistent shortage of doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, and technicians. The bed strength was not raised in 10 years and the department did not publish the total staff vacancies to get them filled from 2014 to 2020, the report said.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report, tabled in the state assembly today, has a performance audit on 'Functioning of District Hospitals' sampling five districts - Biharsharif, Hajipur, Jehanabad, Madhepura, and Patna - for the period 2014-15 to 2019-20.
It aimed to assess the overall health services being provided by district hospitals.
On Out-Patient services, the report found that the hospitals did not provide 12 to 15 significant OPD curative services like cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, ENT etc. due to a shortage of specialist doctors and infrastructures such as building, equipment and furniture.
The patient load on registration counters went as high as 208 per cent higher than normal. Further, 59 per cent of OPD patients bought medicines out of their own pocket, defeating the goal of providing free medication, it added.
The facility for diagnosis and management of cases of cardiovascular disease, stroke and cancer was not available in any of the district hospitals.
Accident/Trauma and Psychiatry wards were also not found in any of the checked hospitals. Positive/negative isolation wards for infectious patients were also not found. This finding is especially concerning as it shows the state's health infrastructure was ill-prepared for the pandemic.
The report further highlights several inadequacies in operation theatres, Intensive Care Units (ICU), Cardiac Care Units (CCU), blood banks and maternity departments.