Disorder order of the day at Bara Hindu Rao
A bamboo scaffold wraps the Bara Hindu Rao Hospital’s outpatient department (OPD) from the outside. The OPD is where appointment cards are issued and is visited by close to 4,000 people every day.
A bamboo scaffold wraps the Bara Hindu Rao Hospital’s outpatient department (OPD) from the outside. The OPD is where appointment cards are issued and is visited by close to 4,000 people every day.
In the absence of warning signs, children climb the scaffolding.
“Patients are issued their OPD cards here. Children being children will continue to play,” said Chaman Lal, who stood in the queue with his wife. “Unless an accident occurs, the hospital (authority) will not learn.”
Loose bricks and rods clutter the compound. “If a brick falls on the head of a patient, the patients will set the hospital on fire. We must shift the OPD,” said a Hindu Rao Hospital official on the condition of anonymity.
There is no concept of medical waste disposal.
Scores of used syringes lie exposed in the paediatric ward for children, putting them at risk of infection. The incinerator lies unused.
A black waste disposal basket for discarded used syringes lies empty right next to a notice stuck in the nurses' cabin that reads, ‘Please dispose the syringes immediately after use.’
The medical superintendent Dr P.P. Singh disagreed with the situation.
“There has been a big visible improvement in the hospital from the previous years,” he said.
“Patient safety is only the hospital’s responsibility. The clients must be equally responsible.”
Shortage saga
There is no provision for safe drinking water in the hospital, not even for doctors at work.
“We have to carry our own water to work,” said Suresh Chand, 49, general secretary of the health employees welfare union.
“Patients have little choice but to drink the unfiltered tap water or buy packaged drinking water from the dozens of small shops that line the hospital outside,” he said.
Dr Singh refuted the claims saying these were baseless allegations.
Electricity supply in the hospital is erratic, with the condition worsening in the peak summer months when the mercury hovers around 40 degree Celsius mark.
On June 29 this year, 30 people died in 24 hours. Four deaths were due to dehydration and heatstroke. The medical superintendent does admit there is water and power shortage.
“We usually call in water tankers. But the heat does affect the patients and sometimes also costs lives,” he said.