Departmental officials instead blame the overburden of work borne by a thin staff
Poonam Devi, a 31-year-old housewife of modest means, has been frequenting the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment for a year. But a cure eluded her for the longest time. When the family learnt why, they were appalled. Her initial diagnosis was based on the wrong blood report.
"Despite many visits which began in August last year, and all the medication she took, my wife did not get any relief for two months," said Sohan Lal, Poonam's husband, who works as a tailor in Sangam Vihar in south Delhi. "We were really disappointed. If the country's premier medical facility could not cure her, who could?" Then, the doctor sent Poonam for retests. It was then that it was revealed that her previous reports were wrong, and she was in fact suffering from thyroid. Asked what she was being treated for earlier, Sohan said he did not really know, but that her symptoms included insomnia and depression.
The mix-up in blood test reports came to the fore during an investigation by DNA, which revealed that in hundreds of cases over the past two years, wrong barcodes have been stamped on patients' cards by AIIMS' blood collection centre. So far, this correspondent has been able to verify 25 of these.
The centre's senior staff are aware of the grave blunders. But despite knowledge of the goof-ups, no corrective or punitive action has been taken to redress the problem. Departmental officials instead blame the overburden of work borne by a thin staff.
"We get around 800 patients a day, and each undergoes five tests on an average so there are as many barcodes. I have only 10 people on the team. How do you expect them to paste 4,000 codes correctly? A few mistakes are bound to happen. But nobody has been affected so far," said Dr Shyam Prakash, who is in charge of the blood collection centre at AIIMS. Turn to
"When the patients take these reports to the doctors, I am sure the doctors advise them to get the right report," Dr Prakash added.
When an AIIMS doctor refers a patient to the blood centre for tests, their sample is taken and barcodes corresponding to each singular test are stamped on their card.
A mix-up in barcodes could lead to the wrong blood report being associated with a patient, which in turn could mess up the diagnosis.
Muddling up the reports is not all. Sometimes, the centre "loses" them. Take the case of Pankaj Kumar, who landed at AIIMS on August 20, all the way from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh to seek treatment of his chronic stomach ache. He was advised blood tests by the doctor. A week later, he had to travel back to Delhi to collect the reports, only to be told that his samples had been lost.
"I gave two samples. It turned out that my samples never reached their main laboratory. Now, I will have to come again to give samples," said Kumar.
Doctors in AIIMS' laboratory medicine department said on the condition of anonymity that they never received Kumar's samples from the blood circulation centre.
While AIIMS has a complaint centre to redress patients' issues, patients have little energy to expend on the process. Even though Pankaj Kumar did approach the doctors in the lab medicine department after his reports were misplaced, he had to give his blood samples again anyway.
DNA tried to get in touch with the facility's medical director, Randeep Guleria, but he was unavailable for comment.
Head of the Delhi Medical Council told DNA that such mistakes could constitute criminal medical negligence. A city-based lawyer confirmed this.
"If it turns out that these report mix-ups have caused someone harm, it would lead to serious implications. Despite knowing, no action was taken to resolve the problem. This falls under criminal negligence and should be looked into immediately," said Dr Girish Tyagi, registrar, Delhi Medical Council.
CIRCULATION AT THE FACILITY
10,000
Number of patients who visit AIIMS OPD every day
4,000
Average number of blood tests conducted daily
800
Average daily footfall at the blood circulation centre
Ravi Mani Tripathi’s barcodes (left, bottom) pasted on Md. Murshid’s card
2% The share of records that get mixed-up
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