Ahmedabad: Coronavirus has wrought havoc on Gujarat in which the situation of Ahmedabad has become critical with the maximum number of positive cases being reported from the city. Till May 31st, the city had recorded 12,180 cases and a total death toll of 842, thus making Ahmedabad a coronavirus hotspot city.
The state government had set up in a short time a 1,200-bed COVID-19 hospital in the premises of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital with much hype. However, there have been many complaints regarding the treatment being given to the corona patients in this special COVID-19 facility.
Patients had to resort to social media to make several videos viral about the incidents of gross neglect in the treatment of coronavirus patients compelling the state government to rectify the situation.
There was public interest litigation filed in the Gujarat High Court following which the Court pulled up the state government saying patients should not be allowed to die. The Court asked how many times did the state’s health minister and the health secretary visit the Civil Hospital? After the court’s strictures, a team of the state government visited Civil Hospitals to set things right. Yet, incidents of neglect continue to pour in from Civil Hospital.
Ahmedabad Civil Hospital has constantly remained in controversy. The condition of coronavirus patients there is pathetic. Many a times, the family members of patients do not even know in what condition their near and dear one is in.
There have been many cases where the family members were informed late about the death of a patient. There has been complete lack of coordination between senior and junior doctors. Many of the senior doctors do not examine the patients and send the junior doctors to attend to them.
In the most difficult times of coronavirus pandemic when people consider doctors as their god, the largest number of deaths of patients have occurred in the Civil Hospital on account of improper treatment. There was controversy about ventilator.
A junior doctor had placed a woman patient on a ventilator when she was bleeding and her relatives were not even informed. The junior doctor did not even know how to install the ventilator. The woman patient died. There are many such incidents of mishandling because of which people are afraid of going to the Civil Hospital.
There were several videos which went viral on social media showing how coronavirus patients were being mistreated. These videos were made by the patients. A few videos also showed relatives accompanying the patients in the special wards.
Because of the neglect of the medical officers of the state, there have been cases of living patients being declared dead, missing patients and family members being told after the cremation of the dead that the patient was coronavirus positive. All this indicates that the health department is behaving like an omnipotent.
One incident was shocking. Two days after the cremation of a dead person, his family members received a call from the Civil Hospital that they too were infected by coronavirus and hence the hospital was sending the staff to get them admitted to the hospital.
Imagine what kind of faux pas is going on at the health department and the Civil Hospital. Before this, there was a report of the missing of a 70-year-old person. A search was mounted and it was found that the person had gone to a different ward where he had passed away and his body was found.
A 40-year-old man, who eked out a living selling broom, was found to be a coronavirus positive two days after he was admitted to hospital. He was declared dead two days later. However, the man was getting treated in the cancer department.
In a recent case of the carelessness of the Civil Hospital, 15 days after a patient’s dead body was cremated his family members were informed that the patient has been shifted to another ward. These are not part of a fiction but real-life incidents. Declaring a coronavirus positive person as dead and declaring someone as a positive case after the dead person’s cremation, indicates gross negligence.
A few days ago, director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences Dr Randeep Guleria and his colleagues had visited Civil Hospital when health secretary Jayanti Ravi and other officials too were present. The government was happy that Dr Guleria said what he was briefed by the state officials.
Important is the fact that incidents of neglect by the Civil Hospital have been occurring every day. The number of coronavirus cases is also increasing every day. This is creating a crisis of confidence on the Civil Hospital.
Despite so many videos about the gross neglect by the Civil Hospital and reporting by the media, the state government has not taken any action. After carrying of cosmetic changes, the government has been saying, “All is well’. The poor have no choice but to go to the Civil Hospital.
It is the duty of the state government to ensure the best treatment to the poor at the Civil Hospital which carries the tag of a government hospital. It is a matter of the government’s reputation if the functioning of the Civil Hospital is sloppy.
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