The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare department to address various patients’ plights in the Bhadrak District Headquarters Hospital (DHH).
Supreme Court lawyer and human rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy recently lodged a complaint with the apex human rights watchdog alleging that patients are not getting Government facilities in the hospital.
The fate of multi-speciality model hospital in Bhadrak district has been buried under files, leaving locals to fend for themselves. Scanty infrastructure and unhygienic conditions in the DHH continues to drub the patients. Though the issues have been thrashed out in District Council, Vigilance Monitoring and District Planning Board meetings yet it has not yielded any result. The administration fails to allocate land for a project that is supposed to benefit more than 15 lakh people, Tripathy alleged.
He said not step has been taken to shift the hospital from the present congested place to a traffic-free location.
Tripathy alleged that the wards in the hospital are stinking due to lack of proper sanitation. The sole operation theatre is lacking infrastructure and equipment. A portion of the hospital campus has been encroached upon. Though the hospital is the only hope for serious patients of the district yet it lacks departments like Neurology, Psychiatry and ENT.
Regarding management of hospital waste materials, Tripathy mentioned in his petition that 60 per cent of hazardous waste, generated by the hospital, is indiscriminately dumped in drains and along roads. While there is no mortuary, the post mortem house is in a dilapidated condition. The hospital lacks all these due to the gross negligence of the Health Dpartment, Radhakanta alleged.
He requested the NHRC to direct the department to set up a multi-speciality model hospital in Bhadrak, make the trauma care centre functional, open life saving units and ensure that patients basic human rights are not violated.