Hyderabad: Harassed relatives of Covid-19 patients at TIMS at their wits' end

Gachibowli: A surge in the second wave of Covid-19 case had weakened and overcrowded the public health system in the State and burdened its government hospitals. Desperate relatives of Covid-19 patients appealed to the hospital staff to deliver food to the patients, as they struggle for a one-time meal in the hospital.

Families and attenders at the TIMS Hospital shared their suffering as they face difficulties to deliver basic amenities like food and clothes to their dear ones. Sharing her plight, a woman whose husband aged 55 is undergoing treatment at the hospital since Monday said, "With no option left I had to pay to the hospital staff at the TIMS for passing on home-cooked food to my husband, who is getting treated for Covid-19."

Another family member of a Covid-19 patient who was holding a tiffin box and was standing near the entrance said, "Once you enter the place, from there you need to start paying the security guard and the staffers to get things done."

He says, "The hospital's canteen food is so bad that families have opted to get food and other edibles from home, but the hospital authority is not allowing the food inside the hospital premises. Once we deliver the food at the entrance counter, it takes as long as two hours to reach the patient and the receptionists give us the excuse, saying, "We are understaffed, you have to wait".

They also told that the Covid patients are kept waiting for their food owing to staff crunch. "There is a shortage of ward boys and ayahs, the staff oftenforget to provide meals to patients," alleges a family member at the TIMS.

There have been such instances where Covid-19 patients had received dinner at 10 pm from the hospital management. Moreover, with the hospital management not serving food on time, patient attenders have urged the hospital to allow home cook food inside the hospital premises, but the hospital denies and has strictly prohibited the outside food into the hospital.

Few other family members also claimed that the food they send never reaches the patient. When they questioned about it, the attenders alleged that the hospital staff dismisses it with a shrug.

Attenders have been seen appealing to the security personnel to pass mobile phones to the Covid critical patients so that the family members waiting outside the hospital can know about their health condition, but many people have also lost their mobile phones, claimed a patient relative.

When several family patient attenders started protesting and questioning the authorities over the mobile phone issue, the Director of the TIMS, Dr Vimala Thomas on Thursday decided to give the status update of the patients with a dedicated phone with operators. The Director told that these operators will be giving the status updates via WhatsApp especially to those admitted to the Intensive Care Units (ICUs)

Taking note of the poor quality of food being served to the patients at TIMS, the Director said that the diet contractor at TIMS is being replaced on May 1, 2021.