Patients of govt hospitals ask, 'What World Health Day?'

Hyderabad, April 6 (INN): For Rabia Bi, sitting next to her ailing husband lying in the corridor of the Osmania General Hospital, the World Health Day is irrelevant. She and her husband have been told to wait till a bed is vacated in the Hospital before they could be treated for the ailment he is suffering from.

Like Rabia Bi, the hapless patients and their relatives who suffer from official apathy, gross negligence, unhygienic conditions and bureaucratic red tape, the World Health Day would be just another day.

Another day of promises being made to be broken, plans drawn to be relegated to racks, and visits by khaki-clad leaders who would present some fruits and inquire about the condition of the patients in government hospitals.

The patients, and their relatives, undergoing treatment at the three major government-run hospitals in the city, the Osmania General Hospital, the Gandhi Hospital and the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, expect this World Health Day to be no different from the ones earlier. They expect a statement from the Health Minister, bragging about the government's welfare programmes, its schemes and so on and so forth.

To them, such statements are not even worth the effort of reading or hearing them.

The patients in the government-run hospitals, particularly the Osmania and Gandhi General Hospitals, the carelessness of the authorities, the almost inhuman approach of the hospitals' doctors and nurses, are more worrying.

Apart from this, the lack of facilities at these hospitals is the most worrying factor.

Most patients at the Osmania General Hospital and their attendants face immense hardships due to lack of facilitates. The hospital lacks adequate number of beds nor have any facilities for the attendants who invariably have to side by the patient's side and risk being infected or to wait outside the wards.

'My husband was put under medical observation for the last couple of days and we were asked to wait outside till a bed is vacated. This lack of adequate beds has forced us to occupy the vacant space in the corner of the corridor. Beside this, we have access to only one toilet, which too is in a dilapidated condition,' complained Rabia Bi. She had come with high hopes from Sanga Reddy of getting her husband treated.

Apart from this, the patients and their attendants rely on the kind gesture of a city-based non-government organization, the 'Baith-ul-Maal', which has been providing drinking water.

The visitors naturally avoid the taps put up by the hospital authorities because of the stench emanating from there. Not surprising, since years of spitting by betel leaf chewers, gutkha eaters and what not, have made the place almost a cesspool. Dry, but still a cesspool. The taps are so grimy, that one would hesitate to turn them on even with a pair of gloves on.

One peek inside the toilet is enough to want to vomit and become sick, but the apprehension that one might have to undergo treatment at the same hospital was very persuasive to hold back the bile.

The lack of attention and the absence of a stern task master who would enforce discipline in the maintenance of the hospital is glaringly evident. The government is busy quelling dissension within its ranks or devoting more attention to welfare programmes which catch the public eye easily. For the authorities, government hospitals are not the priority. But for the poor, this is literally a lifeline and we have no other options but to come here, says Ashok.

For him and people like Rabia Bi, the World Health Day is just another day. Another day to cope with at the hospital and hope that a bed will be vacated soon so that her husband's treatment can begin.