UP: Kin carries patient in hospital due to dearth of stretchers, staff in PHC

Apart from the pharmacist, there was no one present in the hospital with the ward boy and sweeper both absent from their duties, the attendants alleged. To add to the patient's woes, Mishra's attendants did not even get a stretcher for the patient who arrived for treatment in a critical condition.

Amethi: Due to the apathy of the health authorities, an attendant was forced to carry a patient literally in his lap for want of stretchers and staff in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi district on Thursday, the relatives alleged. On Thursday, Sunny Mishra, a resident of Hasrampur, was admitted to the district community health center in Jamo for treatment.

Apart from the pharmacist, there was no one present in the hospital with the ward boy and sweeper both absent from their duties, the attendants alleged. To add to the patient's woes, Mishra's attendants did not even get a stretcher for the patient who arrived for treatment in a critical condition. In a widely shared video, Mishra is seen being carried by a relative to an ambulance in the absence of a stretcher while a boy scrambles along, with the IV drip.

The pharmacist of the department present there, Kunwar Lal Singh said that the ward boy has been absent for a month. The sweeper has been shifted to some other place, he said.

When contacted over the matter, Amethi CMO Dr. Vimlendra Shekhar said that after getting the matter investigated, strict action will be taken against the culprits. Pertinently, Tiloi MLA Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, the Minister of State for Health in UP represents this district.

Still, common people are complaining about the lack of facilities at government hospitals. Pertinently, on September 17, in an alleged case of medical negligence, a woman delivered a baby in the corridor of a hospital even as the hospital administration ordered a probe into the incident in Uttar Pradesh's Basti district.