ABSTRACT
Background: There is lack of information regarding patient-doctor ratio in government hospitals in India. The aim of the present study was to measure patient-doctor ratio across nine super specialty clinics. The objectives were to measure Outpatient department (OPD) patient-faculty and patient-senior resident doctor ratio, to measure number of patients seen per unit time and time spent per patient in OPDs across nine super specialty clinics.Methods: Total number of OPD patient visits in year 2018 was retrieved for cardiology, gastroenterology, gastrointestinal surgery, neurology, neurosurgery, nephrology, urology, paediatric surgery and oncology. Number of faculties and senior residents working in above specialties were obtained. Ratio of OPD patients to faculties and senior residents across nine above clinics were derived and compared. The average time spend per patient in OPDs across nine above clinics was calculated by number of working days in year 2018 and number of working hours or day in OPD clinics, excluding public holidays.Results: Total 3,59,099 OPD patient visits were registered in year 2018 across nine super specialty clinics. Patient to faculty ratio was highest for gastroenterology followed by neurology and cardiology, while least for neurosurgery and paediatric surgery in descending order. Gastroenterology, neurology and oncology OPDs saw more than 200 patients per working day; with average time spend per patient consultation was two minutes. Compared to super specialty physicians who spend average of 2.2 minutes per patient consult, surgical disciplines used an average of ten minutes per patient for consultation.Conclusions:Super specialty clinics in government hospitals are over worked and under staffed with heavy patient load. Multiple parallel clinics in concerned specialty will provide more time and quality of services per patient.
ABSTRACT
Background: There is lack of information regarding health seeking behaviour of local population during Chhath puja. The aim is to evaluate health seeking behaviour of local population during Chhath festival. And the main objectives is to evaluate the extent of change of routine visits of people seeking healthcare during Chhath festival across major super speciality departments of government hospital.Methods: Database of outpatient department visits across nine super specialities namely, cardiology, gastroenterology, gastrointestinal surgery, neurology, neurosurgery, nephrology, urology, paediatric surgery and oncology were obtained for year 2016, 2017 and 2018 from hospital records. Median and maximum number of outpatient visits per month of each of the nine specialities per year was compared with number of outpatient visits during Chhath festival month of corresponding year.Results: In year 2018, there was 18% average absolute decline of outpatient visit during Chhath month compared to median number of outpatient visits per month that year. Similarly, the average absolute decline of OPD visits was 32% during Chhath month compared to the month when there was maximum number of outpatient visits in 2018. Cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology, nephrology and oncology had more than 20% absolute decline in 2018 compared to median. Trends was similar in year 2017 and 2016, with average decline in Chhath month compared to median and maximum outpatient visits in corresponding year as 3%, 14%, 10% and 26% respectively.Conclusions: Health seeking behaviour of local population drops by one fifth during Chhath festival. Fall in outpatient visits is consistent, uniform and recurring every year.
ABSTRACT
Drug delivery in ocular therapeutics is a challenging problem and is a subject of interest to scientists working in the multidisciplinary areas pertaining to the eye. Most ocular diseases are treated by topical drug application in the form of solutions, suspensions and ointment. These conventional dosage forms suffer from the problems of poor ocular bioavailability, because of various anatomical and pathophysiological barriers prevailing in the eye. Various efforts in ocular drug delivery have been made to improve the bioavailability and to prolong the residence time of drugs applied topically onto the eye. The potential use of polymeric nanoparticles as drug carriers has led to the development of many different colloidal delivery vehicles. Indeed, the association of an active molecule to a nanocarrier allows the molecule to intimately interact with specific ocular structures, to overcome ocular barriers and to prolong its residence in the target tissue. This review discusses the physiochemical characterization, fabrication techniques, therapeutic significances, patented technology of Eudragit based nanoparticles and future possibility in the field of ocular drug delivery.