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‘Patients sleeping near toilets’: Video of Odisha’s Covid-19 hospital goes viral
The video was allegedly shared by the attendant of a Covid-19 patient who died at the hospital on May 23.
A video of a Covid-19 hospital in tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district in Odisha has gone viral on social. In the video, a Covid-19 patient is seen lying under a washbasin, near the toilet while another is lying naked on the floor.
The video was allegedly shared by the attendant of a Covid-19 patient who died at the hospital on May 23.
Bibhudutta Dash, who lives in Baripada town of Myurbhanj, said he admitted his relative to the Covid-19 hospital in Baripada on May 22.
“As his condition deteriorated, he was shifted to another Covid hospital at Bankisole, about 10 kilometres from Baripada town. On May 23 at noon, I was informed about the death of my relative,” said Dash, who got the video clip on Saturday.
“In the video, I saw my relative sitting on the bed on which there was no bed sheet and pillow. He was wearing just a towel. Some of them are also seen sleeping in front of the toilet. There were some oxygen cylinders in the ward. But there was no one to operate them. There are no staff nurses and doctors to attend to the patients. The government is spending a huge amount on the treatment of the Covid patients but where is all the money going and to whom?” he asked.
BJP MLA from Baripada, Prakash Soren, also alleged negligence in the treatment of patients at the Covid hospital at Bankisole. “Several patients are dying in the facility in the absence of oxygen support. The doctors do not understand what the patients want and the nurses do not come close to them fearing infection. The situation is such that patients do not even get food on time,” he alleged.
Mayurbhanj district collector Vineet Bhardwaj said efforts are on to install CCTVs in the hospital to monitor the activities and fill the gaps.
The hospital was set up last year after the Mayurbhanj administration signed an MoU with the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS). It was closed in March after cases of Covid-19 dipped in the district.
This month, the National Human Rights Commission issued summons to the Odisha health secretary to appear before it on June 30 over the death of a Covid-19 patient at the verandah of the district headquarters hospital of Dhenkanal due to the alleged negligence of medical staff.
In the second wave of Covid, at least 830 patients in Odisha have succumbed to the disease since April 1.
