Orissa high court orders state government to make digital display boards fully operational at SCB

Cuttack: Reviewing the progress of installation of digital display boards at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, the Orissa high court has directed state govt to ensure the system becomes fully operational and useful for patients.

A division bench of Justices S K Sahoo and V Narasingh issued the order on Thursday after taking note of a report submitted by the advocates’ committee.The committee stated that during its inspection, “the display board was reflecting ‘do not spit here and there’ and there was no manual display board found displaying the name of the doctors and time, etc”. It further reported that during visits to several departments, including gynaecology, cardiology, radiology and the burn unit, “nowhere had they found any digital display board”.

In some departments, lists of doctors were pasted on walls.The committee recommended that “digital boards should be placed at all the prominent places displaying the name of the doctors, timing, contact details, photographs of the doctors and day of their availability…”Seeking a short adjournment, the state counsel informed the bench that steps were being taken to ensure that all relevant patient information is displayed so that “the orders of patients for treatment in their seriatim is not disturbed”. Listing the matter for further hearing on Nov 27, the bench directed the state to apprise about the “functioning of the display boards as suggested by the learned advocates’ committee”In its order, the bench stated that when the issue was taken up on Sept 18, the state counsel “had produced the letter” from the DMET which said that “he had sanctioned funds” on Sept 11 for “installation of two display systems in the CT scan and MRI areas” of SCB.

The court was informed through a communication from the SCB medical superintendent on Oct 22 that “ten units of digital display boards have been installed in the hospital, out of which 8 boards have been installed at Niramaya centres and 2 units at CT scan and MRI centre areas of the hospital by an agency... as outsourced by OCAC”. The letter added that power connections have been provided and “the display boards will be functional” after due integration with Niramaya/DVDMS (Drugs and Vaccine Distribution Management System) and OeHMIS (Odisha e-Hospital Management Information System), which will take two weeks.