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R.Y. Narayanan

Coimbatore, April 6 The Tamil Nadu Government has ordered the formation of Hospital Grievances Redressal System (HGRS) covering all government hospitals in the State for which a toll-free telephone number would be available to enable the poor people get quality health care and bring “accountability among the service providers”.

The Government has also proposed that the assistance of NICNET could be sought in developing the software to help group the grievances and suggestions and pinpoint the deficiencies in the system.

A Government Order (GO) issued by Mr V.K. Subburaj, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu Government, pointed out that the State Government played a dominant role in providing health services to the people through health sub centres, primary health centres, government hospitals and medical college hospitals.

In addition to the “achievement of quantitative health indicators, there is an urgent need to focus more on quality of health care” and it is difficult to improve the quality of health services “unless the views and perception of the clients are taken into consideration”.

The order said the health functionaries also have a lot of “useful suggestions” to offer to improve the health care system. But there was no proper system to collect their views and there was a need for a multi-pronged approach to improve the quality of health care. The GO mentioned that “corruption is one of the important reasons for the delay in provision of care”.

The best way to improve the accountability of service providers is “to get the feedback from the beneficiaries of the health institutions”. The then Health Minister had announced during the 2006-07 Budget session that vigilance cells would be formed to “weed out the corruption in the hospitals” and the government has proposed the formation of Grievances Redressal System in all Government hospitals in the State.

Explaining the scheme’s objectives, the GO said the system sought to give an opportunity to the users of the Government health institutions to air their grievances to the appropriate authorities, to reduce the delay in the provision of care by prompt response to grievances of the users, to encourage the public and users to offer suggestions to improve the functioning of the institutions, to analyse the grievances and suggest “appropriate changes in the functioning of the Government health institutions and to monitor the improvement in the performance of the institutions”.

It also seeks to create awareness among the public about the services available and “sensitise their rights to use the Government health institutions”.

The GO said that those who seek any grievance redressal should call 1056 and inform the control room staff who would record the grievance/suggestions in the automatic recorder and also enter them in the register and computer. For complaints that needed to be redressed immediately, the control room staff should contact the district grievances cell officer on phone for necessary action.

More Stories on : Medical Institutions & Hospitals | Tamil Nadu

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