Congress working president A. Revanth Reddy has said that the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (TIMS) at Gachibowli neither has a single patient nor a doctor even three months after the State government declared it a COVID-19 specialised hospital.

The Malkajgiri MP, who made a surprise visit to the hospital, said he found just four security personnel in the entire building. He later released a statement along with a video in which he said it reflected the government’s negligence even as COVID cases were rising by the day.

He said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had announced about the 1,500-bed TIMS on March 27 on a grand scale and it was opened on April 19. He had also announced that 100 doctors from the districts would be deputed to the hospital. However, 75 days later, not a single doctor has been appointed nor has a single patient been admitted there, he claimed.

When doctors at Gandhi Hospital are protesting over work overload and unfair distribution of patients, what is preventing the government from using the facility, questioned Revanth, alleging that the CM is just misleading people with grand statements and doing little on the ground.

Mr. Reddy said Telangana’s poor testing numbers are now catching the nation’s attention, and claimed it stands at 22nd place in the country with less than 50,000 tests. The neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has done more than 5.5 lakh tests, he said and blamed it on the CM’s negligence.

He claimed that the government had saved ₹3,500 crore, slashing the salaries of employees and raised another ₹4,000 crore through bonds. It also received donations of about ₹3,000 crore so far but the government was not taking the COVID situation seriously, he claimed.