GUNTUR: Fear in the eyes of Subba Rao is palpable, as he waits for his son to get the test slip from the counter at General Government Hospital in Guntur (GGH) for having CT scan done.
For past two years, he has been suffering from headache and body pains and after nearly running from pillar to post for 10 days, the duty doctor at the hospital had finally diagnosed his condition as serious and suggested CT scan, before being admitted. Rao is worried, as he would be shifted to Acute Medical Care (AMC).
There is a reason for his worry, for most of the death cases are reported in these AMC wards of the hospital every day. On an average 25-30 deaths are reported at GGH, which has 1,500 treated as in patients though the bed strength is only 1,166 and another 4,000 to 5000 people are treated as outpatients on an average per day. The casualty ward sees 8 to 10 deaths on an average, while 2 to 5 are reported in pediatric ward and maternity ward.
On August 30, 60-year-old Subba Rao along with his wife and son visited GGH for the first time. Rao, who toils at a timber depot in Chilakaluripet of Guntur district to eke out a living has been troubled with headaches, intensity of which has only increased in the last two years. On the first day at the hospital, he had to wait for hours in the queue line at the outpatient ticket counter and after obtaining it, he had to be even more patient, before the doctors had time to see him.
“All they did was to see me, ask a few question and immediately, jotted down some tests to be done. The time taken was not even five minutes,” Rao recalled. The situation faced by him, is but normal affair at the outpatient wing, which is overburdened. Two years ago, the outpatient turnout was a mere 1,700 to 1,800 on an average per day, but now, it has more than doubled, touching the 5,000 mark sometimes. Unfortunately, the doctors and other staff strength has not increased correspondingly.
Rao’s son took his father for the tests and after another couple of hours wait, the tests - which include blood tests and few other tests were done and the old man was asked to come next day to collect the report. The next day, again accompanied by his wife and son, he returned to the hospital to collect the reports after waiting in queue for hours.
By the time they collected the report, the doctor, who had asked for the tests, was not available as the outpatient counter was closed. On the advice of the staff, Rao returned after eight days and the doctor, after seeing the reports, found the case was serious and asked the 60-year-old to get admitted to the hospital. Before that, he wanted to have CT scan done. Waiting in the hospital corridor for his son to get the CT ticket, so CT scan could be done to him, Rao looked depressed. “They say, such emergency cases are normally referred to AMC and with a few doctors and nurses to take care of a large number of patients, the treatment gets delayed. Hopefully, I will get lucky and be treated soon,” he hoped.
His son was seen muttering why the doctor was so indifferent to diagnose a case of emergency and took such a long time. “The delay will test the patience of a saint. They have their rules and would not relax them for us poor,” said B Anandaiah, a 28-year-old daily wage earner from Markapur in Prakasam district after an argument with a security woman at pediatric ward. His seven-year-old son has a blood clot in the brain and was admitted for treatment two days ago. Some tests were performed and he was supposed to get the reports Friday. “The receipt is with my wife and she is inside. They refuse to let me in and even do not allow her to come out, ridiculous,” he frowned, while going again to the security.
K Amrutha, a middle-aged woman from Piduguralla, whose one-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter was being admitted to be treated for her high fever, said such delay and such attitude by the hospital staff was becoming increasingly common. Indicating at the long corridor with grills, she said with no waiting room for attendants, they to wait for hours, if not days. For drinking water or to get food, they have to walk a long way out of the corridor. Most of them refuse to leave the place, fearing they will not be allowed inside again.
Such groups of waiting attendants are more at the maternity ward and many were seen encouraging the new mothers in the wards to adjust. Reason, the new mothers brought from the labour room have to be accommodated in a limited number of beds in the ward. In the two gynecology wards, almost every bed is occupied by two mothers with their newborns. “For more than a week, I had to share the same bed with another woman, who too had a baby girl. Today, I am relieved that I am going home,” said Pinnelli Baby, who underwent cesarean.
Her husband Prakash from Narasaraopet had stayed in the corridors for a week.
The nurse stationed at the gynecology ward said three years ago it was not as congested as it is today, as there was a separate mother and child block of two floors. It has been more than two years now, the building was dismantled to be replaced with a six-storeyed Mother and Child block with latest equipment, that could accommodate 600 beds.In fact, funds to the tune of `35 crore were sanctioned by both the Central and State governments. The alumni of Guntur Medical College, which is attached to the hospital, settled in North America have come forward to fund another `30 crore.
However, due to lack of proper coordination for having an MoU with NRI doctors and as to whom to be given the contract for construction, a vast pit is all that is there at the proposed site of the Mother and Child block. The situation is no different in either cardiology ward or neuro surgery ward. In cardiology ward against the bed strength of 35, 60 patients are accommodated.
Against bed strength of 11 in stroke ward, 20 patients are housed. Similar scenes could be witnessed in medicine ward, oncology and orthopedic wards.