Shortage of cots has forced around 50 patients to lie on the floor on the third floor of the COVID-19 speciality wing of Government Rajaji Hospital here. They have been given just a bed sheet.
Two patients, who were admitted on Friday, said fans also do not work and they shared the room with eight others. One of them, a civil engineer, said he did not have any major symptom. He got himself tested in a private lab after developing fever and came to the COVID-19 speciality wing, hoping to get treatment for two weeks and go home. “When I was brought here, I was asked to go to the third floor and wait for bed allotment. All of us are sleeping on the floor. We do not get proper details from the staff nurses. Doctors never visit us,” he said.
Another man, who travelled from Delhi to Madurai, tested positive on Friday. “As a member of the military police, I’ve seen and experienced many bad places and conditions. But this place is something else. There are not only cots but the toilets too are stinking. Nobody cleans the toilets though hundreds use them. Ironically, there are 10 cots kept in a room. They could be given for the aged patients, at least,” he said.
A GRH official said the hospital had 525 beds but 575 patients had been admitted till Sunday. Even a pregnant staff nurse who tested positive on Saturday had to wait for a few hours to get a bed.
Dean J. Sangumani said 200 of the asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 cases are to be shifted to COVID Care Centres such as Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine in Thoppur. “This way we plan to pay more attention to moderate and serious cases. We are doing our best to provide all facilities. We are focussing on triage and reducing mortality rate. We are also setting up more cots,” he said.
