Government hospitals in districts are still referring patients to medical colleges in Calcutta by issuing referral cards with handwritten instructions, and not through the online referral system, Metro came to know during visits to three medical colleges on Monday.

The system was launched at five government medical colleges on November 1, after a pilot project, with MR Bangur Hospital as the destination healthcare facility, was rolled out on October 15.

Government hospitals in some south Bengal districts can now refer patients to SSKM Hospital, Medical College Kolkata, Calcutta National Medical College, RG Kar Medical College and NRS Medical College through the online referral system.

An official in the state health department said all government hospitals in the districts are yet to be integrated with the referral portal.

Another official said the online referral system will be launched in north Bengal on Wednesday.

On Monday, this newspaper spoke with the families of some of the patients who were referred to medical colleges in Calcutta from district hospitals. All of them were given “patient cards”, like before, where it was mentioned that they were being referred to another hospital.

The online patient referral system, which was one of the 10 demands of the protesting junior doctors, aims to stop harassment of patients.

Its design has made doctors in government hospitals accountable for referring a patient to another hospital. The doctor who wants to refer a patient has to mention in the referral portal why the patient cannot be treated at the first hospital.

Also, in the new system, a patient can be referred to a particular hospital only if it has a vacant bed and the facilities to treat him or her.

However, on the ground, many patients are still being harassed in the name of referral and forced to run from one hospital to another for a bed.

Nazia Bibi, 68, who was suffering from lower abdominal pain, was brought to Medical College Kolkata on Monday. Her family members first took her to Minakhan Rural Hospital in North 24-Parganas, where they were handed a card that said she was being referred from the hospital.

The names of two hospitals in abbreviation were written on the card. The other option, according to the scribblings on the card, was to take her to “any state medical college”.

“My mother-in-law has been suffering from severe pain in the lower abdomen for the past week. When
her condition worsened on Monday morning, we took her to Minakhan Rural Hospital. The doctors examined her, prescribed some medicines and referred her,” said Nazia’s son-in-law Mafizur Rahim Molla.

Namita Patra, 68, a resident of Patharpratima in South 24-Parganas, was referred to “any tertiary care hospital” from a rural hospital in the Diamond Harbour health district.

The “patient card” did not have the name of the hospital she was referred to. A hand-written sentence at the bottom of the card said: “Referral to any tertiary care hospital for oncological evaluation”.

Namita’s nephew Mrinmoy Shyamal said on Monday she was referred from the rural hospital on Friday. The family took her to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Saturday, where they were allegedly told no doctor was available.

Namita Patra was next taken to Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute and the family members were reportedly told the same thing — “no doctor was available”. They then went to SSKM Hospital.

“If we were told which hospital had a vacant bed, we would have gone there. A full diagnosis of her cancer is yet to be completed and we are running from one hospital to another,” Mrinmoy said at SSKM on Monday afternoon.

Piya Mondol, 23, was referred to NRS Medical College and Hospital from Basirhat Superspeciality Hospital on Sunday. She was asked to visit the haematology department at NRS.

When the family took her to NRS on Monday, she received preliminary treatment before being told that no beds were vacant in the department.

While being referred to the Emergency department of any government hospital, she was given a “patient card” thatsaid she needed urgentadmission.

The state government had on October 15 launched the pilot project of the central referral system. An analysis of the data recorded on the referral portal revealed that many of the patients referred from districts to city hospitals did not get any treatment at all.

Most referred patients went “missing in transit”. Health officials feel some either visited private hospitals or went to smaller government hospitals near home.

A senior official at a medical college said that while most of the referred patients are turning up with “patient cards”, a few are being referred through the online system.

“As of now, the five medical colleges in Calcutta can see each other’s vacant bed status. The government hospitals in the districts have not been fully integrated into the online referral system. It will take a few weeks to get it fully running,” said a senior official at a government medical college in the city.

“More trained personnel are required to make the system fully functional. The training is underway,” said the official.