PGI lapse puts over 30 cancer patients at coronavirus risk
LUCKNOW: Due to a serious lapse on the part of doctors of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) here, more than 30 immuno-compromised patients suffering from cancer are facing the risk of getting infected with Covid 19.
A patient who carried a report of being corona positive was admitted directly into the ward of endocrine surgery without any screening , where around 30 cancer patients who came for chemotherapy were present on Saturday night. Now all of them are in quarantine and contact tracing has started.
Director, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences ( SGPGIMS) Professor Radha Krishna Dheeman said, “Yes, this is a serious lapse and I
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This is a serious lapse and I have already set up an institutional inquiry into the matter. All I can assure you is that strict action will be taken against the guilty doctors. RK RK DHEEMAN, DHEEMAN, director, director, SGPGIMS SGPGIMS
have already set up an institutional inquiry into the matter . All I can assure you is that strict action will be taken against the guilty doctors who have put the lives of several patients at risk.”
What is more surprising is that the SGPGIMS was the first hospital in the state to slap Rs 1,500 testing charges on every patient and his attendants. It is the only government hospital which screens reports of patients right at the entrance and attendants are issued identity cards after testing. Despite all this, the blunder was surprising, said the attendant of a patient who was present in the ward on the occasion . Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said, “What if my patient or me catch Covid-19? Will the PGI compensate us ?”
Professor Radha Krishna Dheeman said, “All the staff, doctors , nurses and patients who have touched the infected patient have been isolated. The list of their contacts is being prepared. Nurses had taken his blood pressure and also taken out blood for testing.”
Professor Dheeman agreed that cancer patients already had low immunity and they faced a major risk to life if they caught corona.