Chest Hospital faces public ire

[sajiv]

Chest Hospital faces public ire

HYDERABAD: The strain of handling the sudden surge in number of patients has begun to show. As the queue lengthens day by day at the outpatient wing, the weary medical staff tries to do their best, but the impatience of those waiting does not abate, often leading to caustic comments.

None is to blame, but the government itself.

The Chest Hospital, the designated nodal centre for swine flu treatment, has been functioning without a proper improvement in the infrastructure or in medical staff to tackle the surge of patients. And the signs of the strain are there to see.

People have begun questioning the quality of medicare being provided at the Out Patient (OP) wing. It was designed to handle 60 patients a day, but now the turn out is around 300 patients a day.

Of the 36 doctors in the hospital, only eight are expected to take care of the outpatient wing.

The outpatients have to be treated by a general physician, but the hospital does not have one.

The hospital needs 150 nurses but has only 95 out of which only 75 are available for work while the rest are on leave.

The hospital has just 20 beds in the isolation wards for swine flu patients. But there are 27 patients with symptoms of swine flu admitted. Consequently, a few of the swine flu patients share the building with those being treated for HIV.
Telling effect

The increased rush has a telling effect on sanitary conditions.

The toilets, beds and the hospital environment crave for a facelift. Hazardous materials like surgical gloves and masks are dumped haphazardly. Left over food is thrown in the open.

Toilets are dingy and at nights, patients complain of mosquito menace and during day they complain of stink from garbage.

Wash basins near toilets have become spittoons.

"My brother has come from London. We came directly to Chest Hospital after he developed flu symptoms and this is what we get. The sanitary conditions are appalling. Perhaps, that's why people hesitate to get admitted," says Amit Varma, a businessman.