HYDERABAD: Following complaints of shortage of manpower in the isolation ward meant for suspected COVID-19 patients in Osmania General Hospital, the OGH Superintendent released an order on Friday directing nine departments in the hospital to depute their Post-Graduate medicos and house surgeons to work with the General Medicine department.

The order mentions that the measure is "in view of sudden rise in the number of COVID-19 patients at Osmania General Hospital". This measure came after a controversial open letter written by an OGH doctor was circulated on WhatsApp.

'Isolation ward a dumpyard'

The OGH doctor alleged that patients with COVID-19 symptoms were dying due to lack of infra and manpower at OGH. The doctor called the isolation ward in the hospital a ‘dumpyard’ where critical patients suspected to have COVID-19 are sent but many die due to poor infrastructure including less oxygen lines apart from less manpower. "We are only being trained to become insensitive to pain and death," he said.

He went on, "Can anyone imagine the pain of declaring death to family members of 15 patients in a day. Did we really make any use of the lockdown period?  I really feel sad for the patients who come here with a hope that this is a tertiary care centre and they will be saved here. I say this with tears in my eyes.. 'NO..' we are not doing total justice to many of the helpless patients coming here."