In Jalandhar, critical patients ‘dumped’ on road

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 18

Four patients, including two seriously injured men, were dumped on the roadside allegedly by ESI hospital workers near Raen Basera here last night. The injured — a 70-year-old man with sores on his back and an 18-year-old boy with a fractured leg — were unable to walk on their own.

Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori ordered an inquiry after Sant Cinema Market Welfare Society activists approached him.

‘Don’t know how they ended up outside’

The patients were in hospital. We don’t know how they ended up on roadside. At times, relatives take them out. We have nine patients whose whereabouts are not known... We wrote to the DC, but got no reply. Dr Loveleen Garg, MS, ESI hospital

The activists claimed they found the two patients in a pitiable condition with both men having catheters without drainage bag. Writhing in pain, the two were lying at a spot strewn with garbage. They were unable to move, and the bandages on their bodies were soiled, they said. The elderly man named Gora who had called for help, thereby alerting the society members, said he along with three other men had been left at the spot in an auto.

Lalit Mehta, society president, said: “We heard the elderly man screaming. He told us he had been admitted to ESI Hospital after his pelvic bone was injured in an accident. But last night he and three other patients were left near Raen Basera by the hospital staff. The 18-year-old lying next to him had been hit by a vehicle four days ago.”

Despite a search, the other two patients could not be located, added Mehta.

Jalandhar Civil Surgeon Dr Gurinder Kaur Chawla said, “I haven’t received the complaint yet, but will take it up with the ESI Hospital Medical Superintendent.”