Covid-19 suspects complain about lack of facilities at Gzb quarantine centre

Ghaziabad: The suspected Covid-19 patients who were shifted from the MMG District Hospital to a new quarantine facility at BBDIT College campus at Duhai, Muradnagar

Ghaziabad: The suspected Covid-19 patients who were shifted from the MMG District Hospital to a new quarantine facility at BBDIT College campus at Duhai, Muradnagar on Wednesday morning took to social media to complain about the lack of facilities at the centre.

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Following the videos made viral by the patients, administration and health officials rushed to the spot.

The 10 suspected patients, including two women, were sent to the new quarantine centre on Tuesday night. According to health department officials, they readied 23 rooms for patients and 10 others for stay of staff members.

“We were brought to BBDIT College campus on Tuesday night. But this hostel lacks basic facilities. There was no electricity when we arrived and we had to use torch in order to move to our rooms on first floor. The officials said that they will bring some electrician soon, and we kept sitting on stairs for about one-and-a-half hours,” said a 32-year-old woman patient from Indirapuram.

“The staff gave us food which was not proper and no one had their dinner. The doors in some washrooms are broken and there is no water. During the night, there was cold and we had to wrap ourselves in bedsheets. No blankets were available,” she added.

Another woman from Loni who was brought to the facility from MMG Hospital complained of uneasiness ever since she arrived at the new facility. “It is very suffocating here. I came to MMG Hospital on Sunday and we were shifted here on Tuesday night. Two patients are made to stay in one room,” she said as she broke down.

The patients prepared videos and made them viral on the social media platforms. After this, officials from district administration and the health department rushed to the spot.

“There are no proper facilities for hand wash and no sanitizer is available here. We have made tweets about the lack of facilities and also sent videos of the issues at the facility. The facilities at MMG Hospital were far better than what we got here,” said a 22-year-old patient from Sanjay Nagar.

Another man from Loni who is a college student also had his share of complaints. “My family had come with food but they did not allow them inside. They just gave us one water bottle. I have complaints of vomiting and fever but doctors take time to attend to us,” he added.

District magistrate Ajay Shankar Padney did not respond to calls made by HT. Chief development officer Asmita Lal who rushed to the quarantine facility did not take calls either.

However, chief medical officer Dr NK Gupta said that some shortcomings at the facility were rectified.

“The patients were shifted to the facility at around 8pm on Tuesday. Around 10pm packaged drinking water was provided to them. Thirty food packets were also arranged by the Ghaziabad development authority and one bottle of sanitizer was given to each one of them. I myself listened to the patients and all the shortcomings were rectified,” Dr Gupta said.

He added that the administration had made arrangement for the facility and the health department was roped in to provide health care facility.