Sukhdev Mahto, Reena Devi (name changed), Munna Prasad and a number of others are those who either came alone to Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) for treatment or their attendants left them in the hospital on their ill-fate.
This has started creating serious problems for hospital itself. But the hospital administration has denied awareness of such patients.
Unattended patients can be seen sleeping on floors around Department of Neurology and a number of other departments in RIMS. But RIMS Acting Director RK Srivastava reflected his unawareness about this. “I have not been informed about any unattended patient in hospital premises yet. Even the patients, police bring to us and go back are not left unattended,” said Srivastava.
Yet he said that the hospital worked with limited number of nurses and attendants, hence it might be possible that everyone couldn’t get an attendant from hospital. “Everyone knows we have limited staff. Still, we try our best not to leave anyone unattended. However, I will ensure a couple of rounds to be made every day and to figure out exact number of these patients and would do our best to treat them,” said Srivastava.
“I came here along with my mother and brother-in-laws, and they have gone back two days ago on the name of arranging money for treatment. Though I am sure they will return, I don’t have anyone to look after me and my small child here. No one has offered me any help from hospital and no one even bothers if I sleep here,” said Reena Devi.
Mahto is also the one who claimed to have been brought by his son, who disappeared after a short while. He said, “It pains me a lot to go from counter to counter for tests and collecting reports. But I have no other option left”. However, Srivastava denied this saying that as soon as hospital comes to know about any such patient, it provides him food and other medical facilities instantly.
Not only hospital wards and OPD, but hospital mortuary also remains filled with unclaimed bodies. This is something that hospital administration is also well aware of. “As far as our mortuary is concerned, we do have issues related to our capacity. RIMS has become the last hope for patients across the State, resulting in more deaths than other hospitals. Other problem is of dispensation of dead bodies till it remains unclaimed,” said Srivastava. He added that some of the boxes in mortuary were not functioning from some time, and hospital is in process of getting it repaired or replaced as soon as possible.
However, Srivastava admitted that any mechanism to figure unattended patient has not been in existence yet and the hospital will develop one soon.