Don’t go to pvt hospitals: Etala

Blames family members for wrongly identifying their dead

Health minister Etala Rajendar on Wednesday urged people to refrain from going to private hospitals for Covid-19 testing and treatment, declaring that the government has every possible facility for comprehensive testing and treatment of Coronavirus patients.

He said people should have faith in the government-run healthcare system.

“It is the government’s responsibility to take care of anyone with symptoms,” he said, adding that the government will provide isolation facilities for those who cannot stay at home for any reason after testing positive. “There is no need for anyone to spend any money for Covid-19 tests or treatment,” he said.

The minister pointed out that when Coronavirus cases first started coming in, private hospitals and doctors were scared to treat them. “The government took the full responsibility at that time and our doctors, nurses, and staffers have been putting their lives on the line every day for the past three months,” he said.

He also said that the confusion over identification of the dead at the mortuary at Gandhi Hospital was a result of misidentification of the deceased by the family members of Covid-19 patients.

“Many of them do not even want to come to identify their own dead or want to have anything to do with them. And when GHMC staffers take the bodies for burial or cremation, people are objecting. This is inhuman behaviour,” he said.

It has now been decided to paste a photograph of the face of the deceased person on the body bag to aid identification. There will also be a hospital band with the details of the person on the wrapping, he said.

IT HAS now been decided to paste a photograph of the face of the deceased person on the body bag to aid identification.

ETALA RAJENDAR, Health minister