Patients rue lack of facilities at Dharamsala zonal hospital

lit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, September 15

Questions are being raised about arrangements made for Covid patients at Dharamsala zonal hospital containment zone.

Some inmates there have made videos regarding the poor arrangements. In a video that has gone viral, Covid patients alleged that a mentally challenged patient had been kept with them in the isolation ward who created a mess there. The patients complained about unhygienic conditions in the ward. They also alleged that food quality there was poor.

Former Congress minister Sudhir Sharma in a statement issued here had expressed concern regarding the poor quality of food being given to Covid patients in the zonal hospital.

The CMO, Kangra, GD Gupta said the matter regarding poor quality of food being served to patients was brought to his notice and necessary action was taken and the matter was resolved.

Regarding patients facing a mentally challenged person in the isolation ward, the CMO said he was from Fatehpur who had suffered head injury in an accident. “He has been in the isolation ward for the last two months. We have requested the family members of the patient to take him home. However, they have refused to take him home. In such a situation we cannot send the patient anywhere and are taking care of him in the isolation ward,” the CMO said.

He said there were 90 Covid patients in the hospital and all of them were being looked after well. “Whenever a complaint comes, it is addressed immediately,” he said.

Sources said in a leading private hospital in Kangra, most of the health workers stopped coming to work after a patient became positive. The management of the hospital had to close down services for a few days as the health workers did not turn up. It was only after the management threatened to terminate their services that they returned back to work.

The sources said similar situation was prevailing in government hospitals also where containment zones had been formed. They said health workers avoid entering isolation wards where Covid patients had been kept.