Surge in patient referrals to five major hospitals

As per findings, 88.2% patients from various cities were shifted to five key health facilities

LAHORE: Most of the public hospitals in Punjab lack advanced treatment facilities as at least 88.2% of the patients throughout the province were shifted to major hospitals while only 9.8% patients were referred to major hospitals due to unavailability of specialised doctors.

These findings are based on data of 211,998 patients shifted within or outside districts by the Patient Transfer Service, an ambulance service by Punjab Emergency Service Rescue 1122, during 2019.

According to data, out of 211,998 patients, 187,085 were shifted to major hospitals due to unavailability of advanced treatment facilities, 20,831 due to unavailability of specialised doctors and 4,082 due to other reasons. Only five major hospitals in Punjab are bearing the burden of such a large number of patients.

The Nishter Hospital Multan received the majority of the patients. The facility received 41.78% of the total patients. The second largest number of patients was received by the Allied Hospital Faisalabad followed by Bahawalpur Victoria Hospital. The Lahore General Hospital and Mayo Hospital Lahore received 30,401 and 27,850 patients respectively.

The districts where these hospitals were situated had one of the lowest number of patients referred to other districts. No patient was referred to other districts from Lahore. Only 242 patients were shifted from Bahawalpur, 385 from Faisalabad and 514 from Multan during 2019. Only one patient was shifted from Rawalpindi to other districts.

Maximum out of district referral was from District Khanewal i.e. 10,668. Maximum referrals within a district were from Faisalabad and minimum from Nankana Sahib.

Top five patient referring hospitals included DHQ Sheikhupura with 14,495 patients, DHQ Kasur with 12,917 patients, DHQ Toba Tek Singh with 12,281, DHQ Lodhran with 12,271 and DHQ Khanewal with 12,135 numbers of patients.

Data revealed that top five referring out districts are Khanewal, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Lodhran and Nankana Sahib with 30,362, 30,310, 21,712, 20,296 and 17,678 number of patients respectively.

Faialabad topped within the district patient referrals with 10,144 numbers of patients followed by Multan with 9,288, Rahim Yar Khan with 8,230, Rawalpindi with 7,116, Bahawalpur with 5,703 and Lahore with 5,145 number of patients.

As many as 9,907 patients were shifted out of district from Sheikhupura, 7,374 from Lodhran, 6,873 from Bahawalnagar, 6,741 from Nankana Sahib, 6,477 from Kasur, 5,383 from Toba Tek Singh, 5,192 from Chiniot, 5,098 from Vehari, 4,890 from Pakpattan, 4,328 from Hafizabad, 4,222 from Okara, 3,934 from Attock, 3,464 from Rajanpur, 335 from Layyah, 2,407 from Gujranwala, 2,206 from Jhang, 2,197 from Mianwali and 287 from Jhelum.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2020.