Punjab: Patients allege lack of facilities, mistreatment

BATHINDA: A group of Covid-19 patients put up at the Meritorious school, Bathinda have accused authorities of failing to provide them with requisite amenities, including timely meals. The patients went to the terrace of the school, which is being used as an isolation facility, and raised slogans against the state government. The protest jolted authorities into doing the needful.
On May 15, Covid-19 patients at Jalalabad hospital came out in the open raising similar issues. The family of a Rajasthan man who died at Guru Gobind Singh medical college on Friday also accused authorities of not caring for Covid-19 patients.
On Friday, some of the patients protesting on top of the school building leaned over the edge, putting their lives at risk. They also accused policemen at the centre of not treating them well. Many of them alleged that they were being made to live in miserable conditions and not fed properly.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and leader of opposition Harpal Singh Cheema took serious note of the protest and deplored the conditions that forced patients at the isolation centre to climb the roof to be heard.
In an official release, AAP legislators said that the unprecedented spike in Covid-19 cases has exposed the state government, which claimed that all measures were in place to treat patients and check the spread of the novel coronavirus. Also, the legislators said, such conditions had left Covid-19 patients feeling harassed.
Bathinda civil surgeon Dr Amrik Singh Sandhu said, “the quantity of food has been increased so that no one faces any problems at the isolation centre.”
Bathinda deputy commissioner B Srinivasan said, “some patients were put up at the centre late in the evening when lunch time was over. They were angry but facilities have been upgraded and food quantity increased. The matter has been settled.”