Elevator at Haveri district hospital defunct for over a month, patients suffer

HAVERI: The District Hospital here caters to hundreds of patients daily, but its defunct elevator is causing much inconvenience to both patients and their attendants.
Many patients are struggling to walk from the gate to their wards in the three-storeyed building. Kidney patients are finding it hard to climb to the third floor to get dialysis done.
Sharanagouda Agnigoudra, an attendant of a patient, alleged that the elevator in the district hospital has not been working since a month.“Many patients are struggling to reach doctors on the first, second, and third floor. My father is a dialysis patient and every step he needs to climb is like an experience of death for him. I complained about the elevator on ‘Janasnehi Karnataka’ on October 6, but it is yet to be resolved,” he added.
He added that he had complained orally several times to the hospital authorities. “I wonder how the authorities can be so irresponsible about such a serious issue. Whenever I complained, I got the same answer that the elevator will be repaired within a week. But officials don’t have concern about the issue,” he alleged.
“The real difficulty is for emergency patients and their attendants who rely on lifts to reach the departments concerned. The elevator is necessary for critical patients to reach units on the upper floors of the hospital,” said Shabbir Ahmed Makhandar, another attendant.
Savitri Patil, a pregnant woman, said the lift was not working for the past six weeks. “I am eight months pregnant and am forced to climb two floors to see a doctor. We request the hospital authorities get the elevator fixed as soon as possible,” she added.
When contacted, district surgeon Dr PR Havanur admitted to the problem and said, “We are facing a fund crunch to repair the elevator. We will give orders to the elevator company to repair it and will solve this problem within a week without fail.”