Safdarjung hospital turns away burn victim

Despite aspiring to be a ‘Millennium City’, Gurgaon seems ill-equipped to earn that tag any time soon.

Despite aspiring to be a ‘Millennium City’, Gurgaon seems ill-equipped to earn that tag any time soon. The entire city does not have a single dedicated burn wards in any of its 60 hospitals (this figure includes government hospitals and private ones).

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Also, hospitals in Gurgaon refuse to admit patients with more than 30% burn injuries. On Friday, one of the three critically-injured patients, who were rushed to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital from various Gurgaon hospitals, waited for treatment for about seven hours. While two patients were admitted in the hospital, the third, a 22-year-old man was refused treatment.

With time running out, the patient had to be rushed to another hospital located near India Gate. His relatives waited at the gates of the Safdarjung hospital for seven hours and tried all means to get admission but to no avail.

Around 7.30pm, they finally rushed him to the Lok Nayak Hospital. “We had no other option but to take him to another hospital. We could not afford to see his situation deteriorating,” said a relative. Dr MK Mohanty, medical superintendent, Safdarjung Hospital, refused to speak on the issue, saying that he was chairing a science conference and was too busy to talk.