Image used for representational purpose.
HYDERABAD: More than two weeks after the inauguration of night shelter homes with much fanfare for attendants of patients at three hospitals in the city, the occupancy rate at these homes is a bare minimum as attendants continue to sleep in the parking areas. If lack of electricity is the discouraging factor at one hospital, it is the shortage of bunker beds at another. At the Niloufer Hospital, attendants have no other option than to sleep on the floor as the shelter there has only five cots. Worse, the five temporary fill beds, which were moved from the hospital to the shelter home, have become rusty. And of the four rooms allocated to patients’ attendants, only one room is equipped with bunker beds.
to the lack of beds at a shelter near hospital | Sathya
“We are used to sleeping on the floor even in our remote rural village. We are used to living a life with whatever little we get,” said T Srinivas while hailing the facility provided by the municipal corporation. Some attendants are worried that their valuables could be lost as the shelter homes have no locker facility.
“The only way to save our belongings is to keep them under our head while we sleep so that we can get alerted in case of an attempt of theft,” said Srinivas who hails from Mahbubnagar.
Zubeda Begum, another attendant, said, “Increasing the bed strength and equipping the shelter homes with blankets and pillows would make them complete.” The shelter home at the maternity hospital in Koti still remains closed, especially at night, as electricity is denied to the home even after twenty days of its inauguration.
“We cannot take the risk of running the home during the nights without electricity as there is scope for accidents,” said K Vinod Kumar of Kotla Foundation Centre which is managing the shelter home. Earlier, a temporary connection was provided but that was withdrawn later, he added. Officials, however, dismissed them as initial hiccups and said they were striving hard to make the shelter homes fully functional. “The shelters homes is a recent initiative and some delay in getting things in place is only natural. Paper work is still under way and we will soon give electricity supply and complete the pending works as well,” said D Soujanya, project director, UCD, GHMC.
