Hospitals need to make their systems more robust

Balchandra Gaikwad, 71, whose body was handed over to the Sonwane family claiming that it was of their father Janardhan Sonawane, 67 (right) Sixty-seven-year-old Janardan Shankar Sonawane. Pic/Sameer Markande

In a shocking lapse of administerial duties, a suburban hospital mixed up two patients and actually told a family to conduct the last rites of a dead person, saying he was their relative.

Later though, after two days, the family learnt that their father was alive and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and they had conducted the last rites on somebody else. Another family learnt that it was their relative who had died, but the last rites were conducted by somebody else. This huge and tragic mix-up resulted in unbelievable psychological stress and anguish for the two families. In the front-page report in this paper, the hospital authorities said that four patients had died on the same day.

Whatever the reason or explanations for this, with the hospital stating that an enquiry is being conducted, it is important that those in charge are extremely methodical and meticulous in these times.

Firstly, relatives of those admitted to hospitals are going through very high levels of anxiety and they may be extremely high strung. Staffers, who are stretched themselves have to be absolutely thorough in explanations, dissemination of information, checking and double-checking before releasing any kind of news to families.

Through this pandemic, we have had sporadic reports about patients disappearing from hospitals and deaths being discovered only one day later. This calls for a very rigorous streamlining of processes at the time of admission and discharge of patients.

These kind of stories are absolutely surreal and explanations about being short-staffed or overworked just do not hold water in these circumstances. It would be better to wait for a bit, verify identities and all aspects before calling families to give any kind of update. These loopholes need to be plugged on an immediate and urgent basis.

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