Hyderabad: Niloufer Hospital in throes of water crisis

Hyderabad: A severe water scarcityhas hit the State-run Niloufer Hospital. With no proper water facility on the premises, patients and their attendants are having hard times and are forced to buy water from outside.

In the State's only government-run children's hospital, which treats thousands of child-patients from across the State, there is also lack of sanitation and cleanliness.

A visit to the hospital shows how attendants are facing difficulties for a basic facility like drinking water and with no public toilets. Men are going to urinate outside the hospital while women have to go a distance from the hospital to the pay-and-use toilet in Red Hills.

An attendant, Sitha Kumari from Adilabad, brought her 4-year-old daughter to the hospital for treatment. Though the doctors were providing better service to the girl, her mother has to run for basic facilities. "I have been here in the hospital for the past 15 days. My husband couldn't come to Hyderabad as we are unable to afford the traveling expenses. I have been purchasing a water bottle of Rs 20 for my daughter," she said.

She also shared that she had to pay to use the toilet and even she paid Rs 15 to take a shower. She says people inside the hospital cannot maintain physical distancing during this rising Covid-19 situation. "With no option left, I have to sleep close to some unknown people, outside the hospital premises. As people from various districts come here, the government should construct a proper waiting area for the attendants," she pleaded.

Just like Sitha, another attendant, a father of a 15-month-old baby, Mohammed Jahangir from Jhirra, said his child was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). "I have been sleeping under a shade along with my wife in this heat with no fans and electricity. There is no separate waiting area for attendants. If we go inside the hospital during mid-might as we cannot sleep outside due to mosquito menace, the staff ask us to leave immediately as it is not permitted in the hospital."

The hospital authorities refused to speak on the issue.