Patients at one of North Delhi’s largest hospitals have dogs, garbage and each other for company, as canines roam the premises and as many as three patients are forced to share one bed at Bara Hindu Rao Hospital.
The unhygienic conditions at the municipality-run hospital were brought up on Thursday in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation by Opposition Congress councillors. An inspection by the Health Committee on Wednesday found irregularities in the functioning of the busy hospital.
A Congress councillor and a member of the Health Committee, Satbir Sharma said: “I was shocked to see that three pregnant ladies were sharing one bed, there were dogs roaming about everywhere and garbage was strewn next to the water pipelines.”
The councillor added that medicines worth over Rs.1 crore had been removed from a central store and sealed in another room within the hospital. “The hospital employees are trying to siphon off drugs meant for the public. They want to sell them in the market,” said Mr. Sharma.
Raising the issue, Congress councillors rushed the well of the House and disrupted proceedings. Leader of Opposition Mukesh Goel said the patients at the hospital were suffering as the conditions were deplorable. He added that there were broken windows in women’s toilets, uncovered wires and large-scale insanitation.
While the BJP did not refute the photographs presented in the House by the Congress, Leader of the House Mira Aggarwal said the situation has been blown out of proportion. She said since the hospital sees more than 1,200 out patients in every day, there is a lot of pressure on facilities. She added that being a government hospital, it cannot turn away any patients.
Mayor Yogender Chandolia said the Congress did not raise the issue in a healthy manner.
However, in all the furore, questions raised by the photographs were not answered.
