The medical faculty and a section of the nursing staff at the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, went on a flash strike and demonstration inside the hospital campus on Friday, soon after the Government issued orders placing a doctor and two head nurses in suspension with immediate effect, pending disciplinary action, in connection with the alleged negligence committed in the care of a patient at the MCH.
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The Government issued the suspension orders on the basis of a report filed by the Director of Medical Education regarding the negligence that was committed in the care of an elderly patient, Anilkumar, who had been admitted in the COVID ward recently.
A stroke patient, Anilkumar, had been referred to the MCH from the Peroorkada district model hospital.
However, after he tested positive for COVID-19, he had been admitted in the COVID ward and since all his family members had been asked to go into quarantine, he was in the ward without any care-givers.
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Anilkumar’s family had complained to the Health Minister that the patient, when discharged and brought home, was emaciated and covered in bed sores, with maggot-infested wounds. The visuals of the patient’s plight, as seen on news channels, had evoked outrage.
Following this, the Health Minister had ordered and immediate enquiry into the incident .
The medical faculty and nurses have however taken exception to the Government’s decision to suspend Dr. Aruna, nodal officer in charge of supervision of the COVID ward and two head nurses, Leena Kunjan and K. V. Rajani, because they point out that the negligence in care had happened because of the acute shortage of support staff in the MCH.
They said that the Government had been informed time and again about the shortage of nursing assistants, staff nurses and other ancillary staff at MCH, especially after the institution was made a COVID hospital.
The number of COVID-19 patients have been going up steadily at the MCH and though new wards and ICUs were being opened up to accommodate patients, the Government was paying scant attention to the fact that these wards and ICUs could be run only if the hospital is provided adequate human resources too, they pointed out.
The nurses’ unions and the Kerala Government Medical College Teachers’ Association said that the MCH authorities had formally written to the Government, detailing how the human resources shortage in the hospital was affecting patient care but that the Government had chosen not to do any thing.
They held the Government responsible for the plight of Anilkumar, which would not have happened if sufficient support staff had been available in the wards.
“The hospital is working with a staff pattern that is decades old and during the pre-pandemic period, the nursing care in wards was being managed with the assistance of the family members of patients. However, during the COVID period, allowing caregivers from outside was not possible and as patients with multi-morbidities were being cared for, most nursing care was focussed there,” KGMCTA said in a letter given to the DME.
The doctors accused the authorities of turning a blind eye to the fact that they were engaged in the care of a lot of non-Covid patients in serious medical conditions too.
The doctors, as a mark of protest against the suspension order issued to their colleague, have decided to organise a 48-hour relay hunger fast to draw the Government’s attention to the issue of human resources shortage. They said that unless the suspension order is revoked and steps taken immediately to resolve the crisis, they would be forced to go into an agitation, boycotting all non-COVID duties.
The nurses are also observing a “Black Day” on Saturday ion protest against the action taken against their colleagues.