Evaluation of ‘Referral for Treatment’ System under RNTCP in a Hospital at Kolkata, India

To handle the problem of tuberculosis (TB), Government of India started the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) in 1993, whereby Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) was officially adopted as the strategy in 1997. The medical colleges, involved in the RNTCP programme, refer the patients to the DOTS centres near their homes, after assigning the treatment categories. This study attempts to evaluate this ‘referral for treatment’ system during the second phase of RNTCP (RNTCP-II). To achieve this objective, pertinent data regarding 758 patients referred from RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata, to various DOTS centres in West Bengal, between 01.10.2006 and 30.09.2007, were collected from the said medical college, the relevant DOTS centres, the patients themselves, using a suitable questionnaire, and also the family members and the neighbours of some patients. Chi-square test at 5% level of significance was used as an analysis tool.