Haryana Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Sumita Misra, on Wednesday issued sweeping directives aimed at enforcing discipline, accountability and round-the-clock healthcare delivery across government hospitals in the state. Chairing a high-level State Task Force review meeting with Chief Medical Officers, Principal Medical Officers, Senior Medical Officers and senior Health Department officers, Dr. Misra made it clear that negligence, poor infrastructure maintenance and lax hospital management would no longer be tolerated.
She warned officers that surprise inspections, raids and strict punitive action would follow wherever standards were found lacking on the ground. The meeting focused on strengthening hospital operations, improving patient services and ensuring that vulnerable patients do not suffer due to administrative failures or equipment breakdowns.
Officers were directed to treat all instructions as immediately enforceable and submit compliance reports to headquarters by Monday. In a major move aimed at improving hospital supervision and patient care, Dr. Misra directed all PMOs, SMOs and CMOs to conduct at least two mandatory rounds daily in their respective hospitals.
Evening rounds have now been made compulsory to ensure continuous monitoring of patient care and hospital functioning beyond regular office hours. The ACS also ordered that in-house laboratory services in government hospitals must function on a 24-hour basis so that patients are not forced to visit private facilities for routine diagnostic tests.
She further directed that radiology services, including X-ray and MRI facilities, must remain operational round the clock without interruption. All hospitals have been instructed to submit a detailed audit report of functional and non-functional medical equipment to headquarters earliest by next Monday.
Non-working machinery must be immediately reported for urgent corrective action. Dr. Misra directed Doctors to ensure that dialysis machines remain fully functional at all times.
She stressed that no patient dependent on dialysis should suffer because of equipment failure, staff shortage or operational delays.“Dialysis patients must be treated with utmost care and priority,” she told officers during the meeting.
The ACS also laid strong emphasis on women’s safety, dignity and hygiene inside hospitals. She directed hospital administrations to ensure special attention towards women patients during treatment and hospitalization.
Toilets in women wards and related facilities are now to be cleaned every hour, while security arrangements across hospital premises are to be strengthened significantly. She instructed to ensure uninterrupted availability of clean drinking water in all hospitals and ordered that lifts in government medical institutions remain fully functional at all times, especially for elderly and critically ill patients.
In an effort to improve the overall atmosphere of hospital campuses, she directed them to launch a large-scale tree plantation drive across government hospitals in the coming monsoon season. Officers were directed to plant fruit-bearing and flowering trees within hospital premises to create a healthier and more patient-friendly environment.
Adopting a strict enforcement approach, the ACS stated that dedicated Health Department teams would carry out surprise raids in hospitals across Haryana to assess the actual ground situation. Any deficiency in services, cleanliness, patient care or infrastructure would invite immediate and strict action against responsible officials.
In a significant directive, Dr. Misra ordered registration of FIRs against any private ambulance or transport vehicle found operating illegally inside government hospital premises. The move is being viewed as part of a wider crackdown on unauthorized private influence within public healthcare institutions.
She also directed authorities to intensify raids under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act to strengthen the government’s ongoing campaign against illegal sex determination and sex-selective practices. Dr. Misra instructed all district health authorities to respond promptly to issues highlighted in the media regarding local hospitals.
She said Action Taken Reports must be submitted to headquarters without delay on every complaint or lapse reported publicly. Issuing a stern warning to officers, she said the “most stringent action” would be taken against anyone found ignoring government directives or failing to improve conditions on the ground.