New Delhi: The Delhi government Sunday took cognisance of the alleged discrepancies in the Covid-19 death figures in its daily health bulletins, and directed all government and private hospitals to submit all virus-related details in a timely manner every day.
ThePrint had reported Saturday that the government’s daily health bulletins were leaving out key data regarding Covid-19 cases and even got some death figures wrong.
In what has now become a blame-game between hospitals and the Delhi government, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev said, “It has come to our notice that both public and private hospitals (both COVID-19 dedicated and non-COVID hospitals) are not reporting the deaths of positive cases of COVID-19 occurring in their hospitals in a timely and regular manner.”
Dev issued a detailed standard operating procedure (SOP) on the death figures. He added that the Principal Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Department of the Delhi government Rajesh Prasad will oversee the process to ensure that officials follow the orders.
The order also specifically referred to how despite “repeated reminders”, hospitals in Delhi failed to provide the death summaries to the Death Audit Committee constituted for this purpose.
According to reports, the health bulletins by the Delhi government have not specified testing details since 29 April and have only included the total number of tests. Even the death figures in the bulletins have come under scrutiny after several hospitals said the numbers were much higher.
However, the Delhi government has denied hiding any Covid-related data.
When asked about the discrepancy in death figures, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain blamed it on hospitals.
“Many hospitals report deaths but don’t send summaries. We have directed all hospitals to send detailed summaries within 24 hours of occurrence of deaths. This issue is due to summaries,” Jain told ANI Sunday.
Hospitals disagree
Hospitals, however, disagree that they are to be blamed for the data mismatch.
Dr N.N. Mathur, Medical Director of Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), told ThePrint that they have been forwarding their data to the government regularly.
“We are sending daily reports both to the Delhi and central government every single day and also cumulated weekly death reports,” said Mathur, adding that the “Delhi government system could be faulty”.
He also said the hospital had brought the government’s notice to the fact that their bulletins were not being updated. According to the bulletins, LHMC has not reported a single death due to Covid-19 but hospital authorities claim that three deaths have occurred here.
“We neither hide anything nor do we delay reports,” said Mathur.
The doctor also personally contacted the Delhi health minister’s office regarding this and had been assured that the issue will be resolved by Monday.
Dr J.C. Passey, medical director of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital Hospital, another dedicated Covid-19 facility, had also said the hospital has recorded 47 Covid-19 deaths. The government bulletin, however, only mentioned five deaths as of Sunday.
This data discrepancy is present in the death figures of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as well. Fourteen Covid-19 deaths have reportedly occurred between AIIMS Delhi and AIIMS Jhajjar (which also has patients transferred from Delhi), while the government data shows only two deaths.
Despite repeated calls and messages, the medical superintendent of AIIMS did not respond to ThePrint’s queries.
Specific directions regarding death figures by Delhi govt
The page-long SOP by the Delhi government lays down specific rules regarding the reporting of Covid-19 cases and deaths by the hospitals.
It directs all hospitals to email the details of all coronavirus deaths and cases to the District Surveillance Unit and the State Surveillance Unit of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) cell, constituted by the Delhi government to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. They are also required to attach scanned copies of case summaries, medical files and relevant data needed by the Death Audit Committee.
Nodal officers must also be designated in each hospital for this purpose and medical directors of these hospitals are required to monitor the process.
The order states that even if no death is reported on a particular day from a hospital, a NIL report must be submitted by the nodal officer.
It adds that strict action will be take against those who do not follow these orders.