Thiruvananthapuram: Poorly-maintained buildings, devices and absence of adequate floor plan boards make the movement between departments at the Medical College Hospital a nightmare for patients. It was on September 11 that Anil Kumar, 66, (name changed) met with an accident at Kachani. With head injuries despite wearing helmet, he was rushed to the MCH. What awaited him there was a nightmare, which according to bystanders can happen to any new visitor.
“We rushed him to the casualty where the patients was sanitised and bandaged. He was sent to radiology lab around 300 metres away for X-ray, CT scan and ultrasound,” said A. Das, a bystander. The patient was made to lie on the cold metal stretcher with not even a roll of paper sheet or rexine on it. “There was no light on the corridor inside the building parallel to the road that goes inside MCH. The stretcher had no rubber tyres and had metal exposed. It shook in the slightest undulation of the poorly- laid floor. He was taken on to a lift with metal protruding from it. Any week patient can trip on it. Finally, once we reached here, the X-ray unit displayed a board claiming it had closed down the atomic department,” he said.
Due to the lack of fresh water and bedsheet available in the ward, he took the stairs to casualty from the lab. The filth on the staircase was camouflaged by phenol cleaner and bleaching powder. “It can make even a healthy person dizzy,” he added. A resident doctor who spoke to Deccan Chronicle said that it was up to the authorities (PWD) to ensure that the hospital-layout was patient and bystander-friendly. Many of the issues from poor infrastructure will be solved once new casualty and emergency block comes up, he added.
