Horror story of a Non-Covid patient in a General Ward of a govt hospital

While the whole world has been focusing on coronavirus, the conditions of non-covid patients might have gone unnoticed. In a recent event in Vadodara, a person has decided to share their experience of a government hospital’s general ward.

“Four days ago I brought my 63-year-old mother to the hospital after she complained of chest pain and had breathing problems. I brought her to a renowned government hospital, where she had to undergo all the necessary Corona-related tests. She had tested negative for Corona in all the reports.

For three days my mother had to be brought to the hospital. The nurse used to put medicine under her tongue and give her an injection which gave her a short-term relief. But her condition did not improve and after going around in circles every day at the hospital, I had to firmly ask the doctor if she needed to be admitted?

After much hassle and talks she was finally admitted in the hospital, but when I asked the doctors that what is wrong with her and why does she have to be admitted, I did not get an answer straightaway. I was made to ask another doctor and so on.

Finally after asking around, one of the doctors said that my mother has lungs infection, which was causing pressure on her heart and breathing problems too”.

But the true horror began after her mother was admitted in the general ward of the government hospital.

“Nobody comes to check up on the patient. There was no bed sheet on the bed, nor did anyone come to put up any clean sheets. One of the housekeeping staff of the hospital said that you will have to do it yourself, which I did. Later on, my mother was given an injection and the nurse had informed me that as a side effect, it may induce vomit. There was a bucket kept for vomiting and my mother vomited in it. I went to keep the bucket, when the nurse asked me loudly that where I was going. I thought that somebody will clean it up, but the nurse said that you have to clean the vomit from the bucket by yourself in the washroom, and put it back exactly where I took it from. I questioned her, “Why? Is there no housekeeping staff here to clean up the place?”, to which the nurse replied, “No”, while one of the housekeeping staff sat on the chair with quite an attitude, as if she is the Dean of the hospital. She shouted orders to the relatives of the other patients saying- “Ae tu yaha se aake teri bedsheet le ja“.

I looked towards the housekeeping staff and asked the nurse- “Why won’t she clean it?”, and she replied “No. Wo sirf jhaadu maarte hai and RTPCR ke reports leke aate and jaate hai.”

I am knowledgeable enough to know that a peon usually does this work and not a housekeeping staff. But I didn’t say anything. I went ahead to empty the contents of the bucket in the toilet and when I entered the toilet, my eyes stood still. I could not figure out where exactly should I empty the bucket. There the sink was already half filled and clogged with someone else’s vomit contents from few days back (mostly). I could barely click a photo, it was that disgusting and disturbing at the same time. I got extremely worried by seeing such a pathetic situation, because I did not want to catch any kind of infection from here. I decided to click the photo so that no one else’s family member has to face what I am facing right now.

Imagine my condition, because next up I had to clean out the bucket in that basin, wash my hands in that particular basin and then sanitize myself and feed my already sick mom with those hands!

There was used cotton-balls with blood stains lying on the floor. It hasn’t been cleaned even in the night shift. So, I have a question, what is the point of the housekeeping staff? What is the medical management doing about this?

I wanted to complain to someone, but I had to stay with my mother the whole time. I could not leave her alone.

And this was not just the case with my mother. Beside us, the patient’s oxygen level was going down. The family member had to shout and knock on the door loudly after which the housekeeping staff comes and shouts back in anger. It was middle of the night, and there was so much of noise. The family of the patient has to keep an eye on the patient’s saline bottle and have to shout and tell the nurse to give another bottle, or injection or whatever is required.

While the PM of our country has been promoting Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, I want someone to come and tell me where is the swachhata.

People come over to government hospitals, because financially it’s affordable. It’s comparatively easier to find a bed with oxygen and maybe ventilator in government hospital, than a private hospital. Government and the authorities have been telling us that haath ese dho, haath vese dho, par yaha aake bataye koi, ki haath kaha dhoye? Aadmi bimari se mare na mare, isse toh mar hi jaayega.

I complained to the doctor, and said that my mother has a knee problem and she can’t sit on Indian toilet. On top of that, the toilet does not have sufficient supply of water, there’s barely any clean place to put the feet down. In that case, how can I take my sick mother in there? Please discharge my mother, so that I can treat her at home than keep her here in this filth and endangering everyone’s lives. The doctor’s response was that he’ll pass on the message to another doctor.

Today is the 5th day, and everytime a new doctor visits and I have to keep giving the patient’s history all from the beginning again and again. The next doctor said that they can discharge my mother if her condition stays good.

The nurses and housekeeping staff keep shouting. Even when a patient is in quite a distress – like when a patient’s pipe moved and caused quite a lot of bleeding, the nurse shouted in anger and behaved very rudely.

If this is the condition in a non-covid ward, where the nurses cannot behave patiently with people, then what must be the scenario in the Covid ward.”

(Name withheld for the safety of the patient)