Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB), Goa (6th December to
9th December, 2010)
The IPHB Goa had been running round the clock casualty/emergency services
with one senior and one junior resident under the supervision of consultant. They
were assisted by staff nurse, ward attendants and sweepers. The casualty ward
was connected to all the wards and doctors hostel with telephone facility.
The waiting space of 64 sq. metres provided with 30 chairs and 3 benches could
hardly accommodate 50 patients. Keeping in view the daily outturn of 100 to 150
patients in the OPD held from 9AM to 2 PM the OPD space was highly
inadequate. There was provision of drinking water and television for the patients
in the OPD but there was no newspaper stand with local newspapers. The
canteen located adjacent to the OPD had 2 separate rooms for the faculty and
staff of the hospital and for the patients and their relatives. The canteen services
had been outsourced to a contractor and the rates fixed for tea and snacks were
reasonable but not subsidized. The canteen served a variety of vegetarian and
non vegetarian snacks/meals.
The rooms of the Senior and Junior Residents were small and congested. There
was no provision of pre-registration counselling. A small sized registration
counter was common for all patients irrespective of their age, sex and physical
condition. In the absence of data entry operators, three registration clerks
managing registration counter were recording basic information relating to name,
age, sex, native address of the patients manually and all other details pertaining
to family history, case history, personal history of the patient were entered by the
Senior/Junior resident, as the case may be. The doctors spent about 30 to 45
minutes on new patients and 15 to 20 minutes on old cases. The pharmacist was
taking 5 to 7 minutes to give medicines free of cost to each patient for 30 days
at a time.
The 70 sq. metre record room with 36 steel racks was quite small and congested
for maintaining 76000 case files. The case files of old and new patients were kept
together number-wise and year-wise in the bundles of 100 cases in the racks.
The patient was required to present the card issued to him/her when he/she
came for follow up and the case file was taken out and sent to the Senior/Junior
Resident, as the case may be.
There was an observation room to keep violent and aggressive patients and give
sedation to make them tranquillized. They were examined by the senior/junior
residents in the observation room itself. There was no arrangement for keeping
patients and their relatives who arrived IPBH Goa after OPD hours for the night
to enable them to attend OPD on the next day as exists in Thrissur Mental Health
Hospital in Kerala.
There were well furnished and well maintained biochemical and pathological
laboratories. All the required chemicals for carrying out biochemical and
pathological tests were available. The routine pathological investigations carried
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National Human Rights Commission