Hospital conditions raise a row

Opposition slams State government on poor upkeep

The Opposition slammed the state government on Friday over the shocking state of affairs in government hospitals, mainly in the Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital and the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad city. Ruling TRS MLC MS Prabhakar called for stringent action against doctors and other staff at Gandhi who, he said, declared a patient Boda Biku of Karimnagar dead when he was still alive!

The patient, he said, is now recovering in a private hospital. “It’s really shocking that a person who met with an accident while riding a scooter was declared dead by Gandhi Hospital staff. When his relatives took the ‘body to his native village, he was found alive. He was rushed to a private hospital and he is recovering,” he said.

Prabhakar urged health minister Laxma Reddy to take action against the errant doctors. “The patient is lucky that no post mortem was conducted on the request of his relatives. He would have died that way,” he said in the legislative council.

Leader of Opposition, Mohd Ali Shabbir, M Ranga Reddy and P Sudhakar Reddy questioned the government as to what action was taken against the doctors and others responsible for the blinding of eight persons in Sarojini Devi Hospital.

Saying that the government was taking all measures to streamline government hospitals, Laxma Reddy said eight patients lost their eyesight in the failed operations on July 7. “Since the sight in the other eye is normal, they have not lost sight totally. The cause of infection is due to contaminated ringer lactate solution used during surgery wherein there was a positive culturing of klebsiella bacteria,” he explained.

A complaint was filed on August 28 against Yousuf Badar, MD of Haseeb Pharmaceuticals, Nagpur, in the court of VI additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Nampally.

To a question by Dr Bhoopathi Reddy, the minister said that 120 out of the 3,554 samples tested were found positive for H1N1 (Influenza A) and eight deaths were reported from January 1 to October 18 this year.

RULING TRC MLC calls for stringent action against doctors and staff at Gandji Hospital who declared a patient dead when he was alive.