Angul: The district headquarters hospital (DHH) at Angul has come under the ire of the patients as they allege that the hospital lacks basic infrastructure.
“The stretchers, wheelchairs and lifts at the Angul district headquarters hospital are not in working condition,” said one of the patients.
They (patients) complained that even normal facilities are being denied to the patients despite the government spending crores to strengthen the hospital infrastructure.
Hundreds of patients come to the Angul DHH daily from within and outside the district and most of the cases are related to road mishaps.
The hospital has a capacity to treat 400 patients however the footfall is always higher than the capacity.
The patients complain about the logistics and that they suffer a lot after reaching the hospital.
The critically injured patients have to experience tough time here, some of them pointed out.
There are three stretchers to take patients from ambulances or other vehicles to the casualty but not even one is in working condition, they said. While one stretcher has been thrown into a corner of the hospital, the remaining two are damaged.
“We had heard a lot about the facilities at the Angul DHH. Our expectations were sky-high but when we saw the condition of the hospital ourselves, we felt that we were misled,” said the relative of a patient, who is from outside Angul district.
Finding no other way, sometimes the people are forced to use damaged stretchers. Even the staff in-charge of the stretchers is irked by the regular complaints they receive.
Similarly, it is said that the casualty has four wheelchairs. But not even a single wheelchair is available in times of need.
In such cases, people are seen carrying and dragging the patient to casualty and other wards.
A scene of a patient being carried in somebody’s arms is not new here. Doctors and officers are also coming across such things. But none of them has ever wished to know why patients are being carried in hands, some patients pointed out.
The patients coming to the obstetrics and gynaecology department suffer the most. The department has two lifts but one of them remains out of order quite often.
According to social activist Pratap Moahapatra, mechanics spend most of the time repairing the lifts however it cannot carry people even after year long repair works.
When asked, chief district medical officer (CDMO) Amarendranath Mahanty pleaded his ignorance and advised to contact the ADMO.
With the ADMO on leave, pediatric Pratap Kumar Behera, who was ADMO in-charge, said everything would be intimated to the ADMO once he is back.
PNN