Bhubaneswar: State Government has decided for establishing the dedicated Help Desk in each Covid-19 Facility with immediate effect.
ACS Health & Family Welfare PK Mohapatra Friday issued direction in this regard and asked each Covid-19 facility — both Government and Private- shall mandatorily establish a dedicated Help Desk to function 24×7 with a dedicated telephone preferably a toll free number.
The toll-free help line number of the help desk must be Intimated to the State Level Authorized Officer – Additional DMET Prof Dr Umakant Satpathy Mob- 9437410842.
The toll-free numbers of all Covid-19 facilities shall be widely notified to the public. The help desk shall be manned with sufficient HR so as to attend all calls round the clock in shift manner. Help Desk apart from telephonic communication shall also use the social media like WhatsApp etc. to communicate the voice and pictures of the patient to the attendants of the patient.
A dedicated conference room may be set up at the outside of the Covid-19 Facility with provision of TV and Cameras which can be connected with CC-Ns installed inside the facilities so that the attendant can see his patient and talk with him I her.
Steps shall be taken to collect and record the contact numbers of the patient at the time of admission and even if not inquired by the attendant of the patient, a general information of the condition of the patient shall be communicated as a SMS or WhatsApp message to the attendant of the patient every day at least once.
The Authorized Medical Officer and the Authorized Person shall ensure the establishment of help desk within a limited time of one week and intimate the helpline number to the State Level Authorized Officer.
The AMO as well at AP shall also ensure the proper functioning of the help desk. In case of any complain regarding the non response of the help desk to the query help needed over the telephone, the Amo/AP shall take necessary steps to respond to the call Immediately.
For any violation of the above provisions and non-functioning of the help desk, necessary as deemed fit shall be Initiated against the erring hospital.
Further as the compliance of the help desk is directly related to the overall satisfaction of the patient as well as the attendants, noncompliance of the same shall be seriously viewed and shall be considered as negligence in duty for the concerned patient and the claim of the hospital for the same patient shall be withheld.
Such matter shall be derided by the Technical Committee after receiving a written complaint from the appellant and approval of Government.
In the meantime, in order to mitigate the COVID19 pandemic Government have established good number of COVID treatment facilities across the State. Further, directions have been issued to the private hospitals to reserve 50% of the total general bed and 80 % of ICU In five Municipal Corporation area and 10 % of the total bed in case of other districts.