Alleging that he could not pay the bribe of ₹100 for utilising a wheelchair at Gandhi Hospital, a 33-year-old man used his toddler son’s toy car to wheel himself for a doctor’s appointment on Thursday.
The incident saw the government’s health administration hold a press conference to contain the criticism that came its way.
The incident was captured on camera by a television reporter and went viral on Friday. S. Raju, a painter and resident of Begumpet, came to the hospital with his wife Santoshi to seek appointment for surgery for burns suffered last August. Santoshi alleged that a bribe was demanded for wheelchair though she told the ward boy that she had no money to pay. When the staff turned a deaf ear to her plight, she went home in frustration and returned with her son’s toy car.
“What else could I do? I have been coming for months to the hospital just to find out when they would operate on my husband. The surgery was not being done as I was told I had to buy blood for my husband. I cannot afford to buy it and nobody, including the hospital, came forward to support me,” Santoshi said when asked about the couple’s unusual move that embarrassed the State’s health administration.
She added that she had no grouse with the quality of treatment provided at the hospital, where her husband was treated as an in-patient from August to October last year. The health administration received criticism for being unable to stem corruption in hospitals. Earlier this week, a 25-year-old man from Alwal died after allegedly failing to get respiratory support at Chest Hospital. The wife of the deceased had then alleged that the ward boys sought Rs. 150 to administer oxygen to her husband who came in with respiratory distress. The hospital had suspended two ward boys in the aftermath of the incident.
In its address to the media, Director of Medical Education M. Ramani said Gandhi Hospital had instituted an inquiry into the allegations made by Santoshi and that they would soon operate upon Raju.
“If the inquiry finds staff guilty, they will be punished,” she said.
