The patient referral system for government hospitals that the Bengal government plans to launch across the state in the next few weeks will make doctors accountable for all their referrals as the medics have to cite reasons for not treating the patient in that facility.

The doctors will also have to ensure the ailing person is referred to a hospital that has a vacant bed and the facilities to treat the case, officials of the state health department said.

Many doctors now only write “referred” on the patient card, sometimes without even naming a facility where the patient should go. It only means the patient will not get treatment in that hospital. It does not guarantee a bed anywhere else.

There is also hardly any written explanation for why the treatment is being denied. The most common reason cited is unavailability of beds.

The pilot project for the patient referral system that was launched on October 15 has shown that many patients who are referred do not get any treatment at all.

Most patients are “missing in transit” and health officials feel some of them either visit a private facility or go to a smaller government hospital nearby or do not get themselves treated.

Since October 15, more than 100 patients have been referred to MR Bangur Hospital from government hospitals in South 24-Parganas. Of them, most did not come to MR Bangur, officials said.

The state health department conducted a meeting on Saturday to discuss the implementation of the online patient referral system across the state.

The referral system that links medical colleges with hospitals in the districts or sub-divisions has been launched in five medical colleges in Calcutta though it will take several more days for it to become fully functional, said officials.

A similar launch in five medical colleges in north Bengal is being planned next week.

The Telegraph met many patients who were merely referred to “any” state-run hospital from another state-run hospital while the junior doctors were on a 42-day cease-work from August 9. The patient cards had not mentioned which hospital they should go to. The cards often did not document any case summary.

A 75-year-old patient was referred from one medical college in Calcutta on September 19. The patient card only said there was no vacant bed. “Refer to any hospital” were the words on the patient card.

The referral system was one of the 10 demands of the junior doctors who have been protesting against lapses in the government-run healthcare system in Bengal since the rape and murder of one of their colleagues at RG Kar on August 9

“In this new system, the referring doctor must write online why the patient could not be treated in that facility, what preliminary treatment was given to make the patient stable before referring the ailing person, what investigations were done. The medic must also provide a case summary so the doctor receiving the patient in the next hospital does not have to ask everything again,” said a senior official of the state health department.

All of this will remain recorded in the department’s health management information system. The reasons cited for referring a patient can be viewed by senior doctors or health department officials.

A veteran doctor who has served in top government facilities for decades said the new system will demand that “doctors take more responsibility”.

“Every time a doctor now refers a patient elsewhere, he or she will have to take responsibility for that decision, something that is missing in the system now,” he said.

Earlier, there was no way to examine the patient card handed over to a patient. The documentation available will now make doctors accountable, a health official said.

Health department officials said a patient can be allowed to leave a hospital only when a bed has been booked in another facility.

This, however, does not mean that the bed must be kept vacant till the patient reaches the next hospital.

“If a critical patient arrives before the referred patient, then the critical patient should be admitted to that bed. The referred patient will then have to be given preliminary treatment and a bed in a nearest hospital must be booked for him or her. The other option is that the patient must wait in the emergency till a bed becomes vacant. This will be a challenge that has to be worked out,” said a senior official of a medical college.