Audit committee formed in 4 TN dists to verify cause of deaths

CHENNAI: In the wake of the death of 17-year-old footballer Priya, the state health department on Wednesday formed an audit committee in four districts to verify death cases at hospitals during the conference held at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), as many as 600 surgeons were part of it.

Health Minister Ma Subramanian released safe surgery, protocols, and checklist book, which will be distributed to the doctors soon.

“All the hospitals have death audit committee, if there is avoidable death the mistakes will be rectified next time, and any learning will be shared with other specialists at the hospitals in the state. In this regional audit committee formed in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchy, and Madurai will have surgeons, medical specialists, anesthesia specialists, and orthopedics will verify each death at the hospitals in random,” said health secretary P Senthilkumar.

“The experts will supervise the existing committee at the hospitals. And they will investigate the special cause of any serious issue of death,” he added.

In Tamil Nadu, over 5,000 surgeons work at the healthcare centers, and at least 10,000 surgeries are performed every day from three departments - Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (DPH), Department of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS), and Directorate of Medical Education (DME).

To ensure the producers are followed during the surgery, safety and protocol checklist book has been released which has details about the surgeries and guidelines the experts should follow. “So far, surgeons did not have any difficulty during the surgery, however, this checklist book will guide them better. It has the protocols for pre and post-surgery, and discharge of a patient. The checklist also recommends the protocol issued by World Health Organization (WHO). It will be distributed to the doctors in the next few days,” said Subramanian.