Staff crunch at KGMU: Kin double up as attendants, wade into Covid risk

LUCKNOW: Wearing only gloves and a facemask, Ravi Singh takes care of his 42-year-old sister who was admitted to KGMU after testing Covid-19 positive.
“She is in ICU and family members take turns to be with her to monitor her condition, help her to the toilet and do sponging. The staff only helps in administering intravenous drugs,” Ravi said.
Contrary to the claims of KGMU authorities that only family members of those patients who have turned asymptomatic are at times allowed to go near them, TOI reality check found that many families, like that of Ravi’s, are nursing their Covid-19 patients in most of the wards in the hospitals associated with the university. Generally, a family member remains with the patient while others stay in the waiting area or rain basera for arrangement of medicines. This arrangement exposes the attendants to the risk of catching infection and passing it on to others outside. No family member is provided PPE kit and they have to buy masks, gloves and face shields on their own.
“The quality of food for the patients and attendance is satisfactory. However, toilets lack sanitation. Most of the medicines are given by the hospital, but at times when it is not available, we have to buy from the market in Chowk,” said Ravi. “Nobody from the staff has asked us to be on the bedside of the patient, but nobody stopped us either. We have to come and attend our patients because no staff is around to help them with toilet needs, cleaning and even provide drinking water. I presume the situation is due of shortage of staff,” he added.
Virendra Awasthi, whose 56-year-old wife with severe chest infection is under treatment, said doctors and staff make sure that the attendant is wearing the mask. “We also monitor oxygen levels and inform resident doctors on duty if it falls.” Similarly, family members of DS Tripathi (80), who died recently after battling with the virus for 15 days, took care of all his needs during hospital stay. “I stayed in the night and my wife during the day. We used to do all the cleaning work as well. Once my wife had to call a sanitary worker to clean the soiled bedsheet, he charged Rs 300 for that,” said Tripathi’s son Manav.
KGMU spokesperson Dr Sudhir Singh said, “Sometimes relatives are allowed in the wards if patients need special care. However, the permission is given only when the patients turn asymptomatic.” He added that this practice would also be stopped.
However, a senior professor said KGMU had increased the number of Covid beds to more than 900 without considering shortage of staff in view. “The staff crunch was there even in ordinary times, which aggravated after nearly 25% of workers, including doctors, nurses, ward boys and sanitary workers got infected. Although more employees are being recruited through outsource, they need training before deployment in wards,” he added.
(Names of the patients and their families have been changed on request)