Patients suffer in Vadodara’s gov hospitals as relatives cite negligence and administration cites limited resources

While confronting MP Ranjanben Bhatt, a seemingly hapless woman cried out her woes at the SSG Hospital seven days ago. As Ranjanben Bhatt repeatedly kept reminding the inconsolable woman to pull up her mask, she said, “I am not afraid of Corona but of the treatment that my father is getting here at the hospital.” Pleading for Ranjanben Bhatt to discharge him from the hospital, she added that she would be willing to take the entire responsibility of treating him by herself.

Such instances have found a frequent footing in Vadodara, wherein the citizens have shown disbelief in the working of government hospitals. Visuals of OSD Vinod Rao plying from hospital to hospital in his white Innova have been a constant on the internet. However, the cries for help have only amplified in the last couple of weeks.

The woman in the video alleged that a dead body had been lying next to her father. In quick succession, after she left, another woman came up to Ranjanben at the same spot and said, “They have not changed my grandmother’s diapers, not given food, and have been giving a scanty amount of water after repeated calls.” She also said that not a single bottle of glucose was given to the patient either.

Deepak Ashar, a resident of Vadodara, in his testimonial on Facebook, stated that his critically ill wife kept messaging him in the middle of the night that no one at the Gotri hospital was assisting her with a glass of water. In what he describes as a frightening series of events, he wrote, “My wife called me at 1:30 AM and said that her oxygen mask had slipped. Yet, there was no one to supervise.” Deepak Ashar and his friend rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night and directed the staff to his wife’s aid. He also alleged that the nurses overlooking his wife were verbally insensitive towards her.

A widower, whose wife succumbed to COVID recently at the Samras Hospital, agitated over the withholding of mediclaim documents by the hospital. Before passing away, Hiral Shah’s wife had to be moved to a ventilator facility. While recollecting, Hiral Shah said, “Due to a lack of stretchers in the hospital, my friend and I had to lift my wife in order to shift wards.”

While responding to such instances, OSD Vinod Rao, in a byte to Our Vadodara, said, “This should not ideally happen, but we are not in ideal situations. In a war-like situation, there will be a greater gap between what is ideal and what is possible.” Citing a limited amount of resources, he added, “We have to make the best use of the available resources. While there are scanty cases of such inconveniences, thousands of people have satisfactorily recovered and gotten discharged as well. While we sympathize with the relatives of aggrieved patients, it has to be noted that such cases are not blown out of proportion for political gains.”

All the above-mentioned cases of laxity have come to light from the government hospitals of Samras, Gotri, and SSG. In the past few days, water-related queries, lack of stretchers, delay in consultation, negligence from the staff, and degrading washroom facilities are some of the issues that have come across. As many patients await their turn to get beds in the hospitals, many relatives have voiced the negligence from hospital’s administration even after getting a bed.