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Among unsung heroes: ward boys, attendants, cleaning staff at Covid hospitals
New Delhi While the pandemic has thrown doctors and nurses to the forefront of the fight against the infection in the national capital, supporting their efforts are thousands of ward boys, attendants and sanitation staff who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes
New Delhi While the pandemic has thrown doctors and nurses to the forefront of the fight against the infection in the national capital, supporting their efforts are thousands of ward boys, attendants and sanitation staff who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes.
In most hospitals across Delhi, at least two such staff, known as multi-tasking staff (MTS), work in each ward in every shift, sharing tasks including serving food to patients, helping clean them or change clothes, clean the wards, checking oxygen saturation levels, and shifting patients from one ward to another. In many cases, they have also become a medium to connect patients with their family who are not allowed enter the Covid wards.
Manoj Kumar Paswan (37), a ward attendant at Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital, looks after at least 20 patients during his regular morning shift. “First I serve breakfast to all the patients. It’s important for them to eat first so that they can have the first dose of medicine for the day. Many of the patients are either very weak or old and require assistance to eat. I also help such patients in changing their diapers, clean them and change their clothes. It’s difficult to work but if we won’t do it, who else will help patients at a time when their own family members cannot meet them,” he said.
Paswan said as soon as he comes out of the Covid ward after his duty, the family members of patients’ waiting outside approach him to check the well-being of their loved ones. “I tell them whatever I know. Only doctors can tell the exact situation but I try to ease their pain by talking to them. It is such a helpless situation when a child cannot meet his father or mother, or a wife cannot see her husband or vise versa,” he said.
Similar experiences have been shared by attendants in other Covid hospitals. Tirath Ram, a helper at the municipality-run Swami Dayanand Hospital, said that many patients admitted at the hospital belong to economically weaker sections, who do not own smartphones. He said that he does not hesitate in passing on his phone number to their family members so that they can be in touch with each other or at least enquire about the well-being of the admitted patients.
“Doctors and nurses are busy and are often not very approachable. When a patient is admitted I often give my personal phone number to family members so that they can enquire about their health. It takes me only a few minutes to go check on them. Covid symptoms are treated by doctors, I can only provide some mental peace to patients and families that are already stressed,” said Ram.
Abhishek Singh, an attendant at Lok Nayak Hospital, said that many times, patients seek help to make video calls to their family members. “It feels so difficult to just hold the phone when people at both sides are just weeping. There is hardly any communication between the severe patients and their family members. They just want to see their loved ones...It feels good to help them,” he said.
While hospitals do not allow families to come inside Covid wards, these helpers and sanitation workers are also helping patients run small errands, such as buying snacks that they crave or passing on messages to their family members.
Thirty-eight-year-old Suresh, who is lovingly called ‘Suni bhaiyya’ at the Hindu Rao Hospital, said that two weeks ago, a 19-year-old patient was admitted to the hospital and she had expressed her wish to eat Parle-G biscuits during his morning cleaning duty.
“She was nearly my sister’s age and how much can one eat hospital food. I bought her two packets of Parle-G at my own expense. She was so happy to get it. The situation is so grim these days that all you hear from each ward is news of people dying. These are the small joys that we are holding on to,” Suresh said.
Some attendants said they also encountered “misbehaviour” by family members of patients who succumb to the virus. A ward attendant in Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital said, “A few days ago, a patient could not be revived during resuscitation as he was brought in very critical. The family members started to abuse us and the nurses. We tried to make them understand that we did our best but they resorted to creating a ruckus. We had to call in the security.”
Meanwhile, many said the fear and guilt of infecting family members is eating at them. Rai, who lives with his family of six including elderly parents, said, “Even as I wear PPE kit all the time in the Covid ward, the fear of infection is always there. So many of our colleagues and their family members have tested positive for Covid-19 since April. Some of them even have even died. If people living in big houses are getting infected, what are the chances of a family of six living in a two-room set of not getting the virus?”
