More than hundred patients from different areas of the State are forced to lie on the floors of the elite Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in the want of medical care. The premier medical facility of Jharkhand is finding hard to provide beds and accommodate them and it has virtually left the patients out in a severe cold condition gripping the region.
The situation has become even worse for the patients who have been admitted in the Neurology ward when they were asked to lie on the thin mattresses on the floor with no blankets or bed sheets, denied the proper medical care. This has made the critical patients with heightened risk of contracting with any secondary infection or further complications.
According to Neurology and the Pediatric and Neonatology ward, there are only 76 beds for patients currently against which over 160 patients have been admitted leaving another 20 or so to lie on the floors. Overcrowding is so severe that even 5-year-old Dileshwar Mahato from village lali was seen receiving blood lying on the floor of the Pediatric and Neonatology department’s Unit II.
“We rushed in our son to the hospital on Saturday afternoon and we were told there is no bed available in the ward. But, the child is suffering from malaria and has not been eating properly for the past three days. His White Blood cell count also rapidly fell to mere 40,000 that day so we had to get him treated here on the floor. The blood transfusion began from Sunday and we fear he might not recover from the fever because the floor is ice-cold and the temperatures dip drastically during the dark hours. We are poor, uneducated and helpless and thus, have to suffer,” said Sunita Mahato, mother of Dileshwar.
He is not alone in this peril while a 10-year-old child Aniket Kumar from Patratu who got a road accident and has hurt his left eye and head has been lying on the floor outside the Neurology department due to shortage of beds in the ward for the past four days.
“We have no alternative other than keeping him over here because we cannot afford the treatment at any other hospital. All five of us have come down here leaving our jobs and taking care of Aniket. But now, we are feeling very sick in this cold and the nights are intolerable in the corridor here outside. The wind seems to hit us like ice in the evening and throughout the night. Every night we just pray to wake up alive in the morning. The doctors told us to get a CT-scan done and the nurses informed us that the machine is not functional right now. So, we had to spend Rs 2,000 for the test itself today and we are left with almost no money now,” said Sushila Devi, mother of the 10-year-old.
Sushila also narrated that the patient’s family’s plight here after 7 pm wherein the nurses turn a blind eye to their pleas and cries and they are left to barely survive in this chilled winter outside in the corridor with the ward’s doors shut on their faces.
However, in-charge on duty at the Neurology department did not seem to be too bothered about the patient’s condition as he just termed the entire situation as ‘ordinary’ and ‘usual’. “We usually have as many patients here and what can be done about thisIJ If it is cold, the patient’s families should come well-prepared or take the precaution. We have not tied anyone here on the floor and they are only putting up with all these difficulties because the treatment is the best,” said Dr CB Sahay.
Moreover, the Director of RIMS also reiterated the same adding that they can only wait for the space to be allotted at the Sadar Hospital to be the only option. “As of now, nothing can be done. We are fully aware of the dropping temperatures but we have no alternative. We can only wait for the state to allot the space as planned at the Sadar Hospital’s new complex, which will only happen by April 2016,” said Bl Sherwal.