5.12 Referral and transfer of patients

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A patient during treatment may require referral or transfer to another designated DOTS centre for continuation of treatment. In these cases, the medical officer of the referring/transferring centre should fill the Tuberculosis Referral/Transfer Form (TB 07) in triplicate. One copy should be sent to the referral/transfer centre, one copy is given to the patient and one copy remains in the file of the treatment initiation centre.

When treatment is continued in the receiving DOTS centre, the patient should be registered there as a "transfer in" case. The lower portion of the form (TB 07) should be returned to the centre from where the patient was referred.

If a patient was treated without being registered (e.g., in a hospital or by a private practitioner) and will continue treatment in the designated DOTS centre, this constitutes a referral and not a transfer. In this case, the receiving centre will register the patient as per treatment category (new, relapse, treatment after loss to follow up, failure) and not as transfer in.

Every effort should be taken to collect the treatment outcome of the transferred-out patients from the referred centre and final outcome be reported by the referring centre in order to minimize the number of transfer outs in treatment outcome. Referred centres should also try their best to inform the referring centres on the outcome of treatment of transfer in cases.