Utter lack of monitoring by task force in Rims Covid ward: Report

Ranchi: Authorities of the state-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) were found neglecting their Covid ward located on the third floor of the hospital complex, leading to irregularities a special district team said in its report submitted to chief minister Hemant Soren on Sunday.
Soren had ordered the probe on Saturday after pictures of two Covid-19 patients in a dismal state at the ward went viral on Twitter. The pictures showed one semi-clad patient sitting on the floor unattended while another was found sleeping on the floor because of a broken bed. In his order, the CM asked health minister Banna Gupta and Ranchi DC Chhavi Ranjan to look into the irregularities and fix accountability.
Ranjan, who led the team, attributed the irregularities “to the utter lack of monitoring by the hospital authorities”. He said, “Our inquiry into the matter revealed that the patient, who was semi-clad, is suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s and he has done that before as well. The other patient had been allocated a bed but he chose to sleep on the floor.”
However, the DC said the probe team has raised serious objections over the functioning of the Rims Covid-19 task force. He said there is a sheer lack of monitoring by the task force, which has been constituted for managing the patients at the state’s largest hospital. “If a task force with over a dozen senior doctors cannot manage a 100-bed Covid-19 centre, then the task force should be re-constituted immediately,” Ranjan added.
According to sources in the district administration, the team found that the task force members do own up to their negligence and have completely failed in monitoring the patients at the Covid ward. “When the probe team asked the task force members about the monitoring situation inside the block, the members were short on answers and passed the buck to the junior doctors deployed in the complex to take care of the patients,” said an official, who was part of the probe team.
Several junior doctors, who have been on Covid-19 duty, also supported the claims of the probe team and said only a few doctors from the task force visit the ward to check on their patients. “None of the senior members visit the Covid-19 block. The block is completely run by the junior doctors, who are there 24/7,” a junior doctor said.
“I have been working in the Covid block for the past two weeks and haven’t seen any senior member of the task force there. The seniors only communicate over the phone and we are supposed to take care of all the things inside,” said a PG doctor of the gynaecology department.
Calls and texts by TOI to Rims superintendent Dr Vivek Kashyap went unanswered.