Patients complain about lack of infra at Gandhi Hospital

HYDERABAD: Private hospitals have been roped in by the State government for isolation and treatment of COVID-19 infected patients as many of the patients who are suspected to have been affected by the deadly virus are hesitant to stay in Gandhi Hospital, claiming the lack of luxurious infrastructure.

However, patients staying in other wards of the Gandhi Hospital have started panicking after they realised they have been kept on the same floors as the COVID positive patients and the suspected patients.
Speaking to Express, Health Minister Eatala Rajender, said: “We have roped in private hospitals so that patients who can afford them will also have peace of mind. Many of the patients suspected of COVID are from well-off economical backgrounds. One of their complaints has been lack of western toilets. They also want private rooms and are hesitant to share a ward with other patients, or even get admitted in a government hospital.”

The isolation ward for suspected COVID has been facilitated in Gandhi Hospital’s ‘paid rooms’ where in all the wards have separate designated cubicles for each patient.

However, another section of people from economically and socially underprivileged backgrounds are worried because of a completely different reason. The general surgical ward is right opposite to the Isolation ward on the seventh floor. Patients in this ward have been unofficially suggested by health officials to shift to other hospitals.

A patient’s attender, on the condition of anonymity told Express: “We were asked to shift to a different hospital by one of the medical attendants. We don’t know where to go. We do not even know how this new disease can affect us. Our patient is in not state to be shifted, nor does he have the immunity to deal with another disease.”

Poor patients reeling under fear
A section of people from economically and socially underprivileged backgrounds are worried because the general surgical ward is right opposite to the Isolation ward on the seventh floor. Patients in this ward have been unofficially suggested by health officials to shift to other hospitals