MP to audit all COVID-19 deaths to find out causes of high mortality

All Deans of Medical Colleges have been tasked with detailed daily death audit of every COVID-19 death happening in the districts of their region
An elderly woman being discharged from a hospital in Indore on May 18 (Photo | PTI)
An elderly woman being discharged from a hospital in Indore on May 18 (Photo | PTI)

BHOPAL: Concerned over the COVID-19 death rate in Madhya Pradesh, the state government has asked Deans of Medical Colleges to ensure daily death audit in the districts of their region to find out reasons behind every COVID-19 death.

According to Faiz Ahmad Kidwai, the Commissioner of MP Health Services, “All Deans of Medical Colleges have been tasked with detailed daily death audit of every COVID-19 death happening in the districts of their region to find out the reasons.”

Importantly, at a COVID-19 situation review meeting recently, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan had asked the officials to focus on analysis of each death happening due to COVID-19 in the state for bringing down the COVID-19 mortality rate in MP.

As per the health bulletin on Tuesday evening, the state had reported 364 deaths against 8,420 total positive cases, which meant the state has around 4.32 percent COVID-19 mortality rate compared to the national rate of 2.8 per cent.

As per the available national data, Madhya Pradesh was only second to Gujarat when it came to COVID-19 mortality rate. Against MP’s 4.32 mortality rate, Gujarat’s COVID mortality rate stood at 6.18 percent.

Even Delhi (523 deaths) and Maharashtra (2362), which reported many more deaths than MP, have a better mortality rate of 2.51 percent and 3.37 percent respectively due to a lesser number of deaths in proportion to the large number of positive cases.

As per Dr Jyoti Bindal, the Dean of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Medical College in Indore,  the death audit work is underway at two levels. Firstly, for each district coming in the Indore region, two MGM faculties each have been tasked with coordinating with the chief medical and health officer (CMHO) of each district to get a detailed audit of each COVID-19 death. Secondly, a six-member committee has been constituted to conduct the death audit of each COVID-19 death happening in Indore.

Indore, MP’s COVID-19 hotspot, has so far reported 138 deaths against 3570 positive cases, which means 3.86 percent mortality rate, but smaller districts of Indore region, including Khargone (7.05 pc mortality rate), Khandwa (5.17 pc) and Burhanpur (5.26 pc) have reported higher mortality rates.

“We had been earlier conducting the death audit independently, which suggested that co-morbidity conditions like Diabetes, Hypertension, and even Obesity were major contributors to COVID-19 deaths, which were happening more in patients aged above 50 years,” said Dr. Bindal.

According to Dr. Sanjay Dikshit, the Dean of Ratlam Medical College, “death audit isn’t anything new, but now the system is being streamlined as the death audit reports have to arrive at all cost within 24 hours of the death. We’ve deputed two faculties for each of the five districts under our jurisdiction. These faculties are tasked with analyzing each death in detail, particularly whether all standard treatment protocols were followed in case of the patient who died or not. The detailed death audit will enable us to delve in detail about the host of factors that could be involved in the deaths.”

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