Combating COVID: Level-1 facility in hyderabad old city bereft of basic amenities

Hyderabad: Even as the Government Nizamia General Hospital is turned into a Level-1 treatment facility for the patients of Novel Coronavirus, the hospital staff are apprehensive as they contend they received just two hours of training to undertake treatment of Covid-hit patients.

Not only this, the hospital remains ill-equipped and its resources not galvanised to the desired level, worry its staff.

The doctors are said to be reluctant to face the situation with hardly 2 hours of training, the safety gear and PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) etc are yet to be provided to the hospital in good measure.

The hospital with 250 beds has been provided a mere Rs 7.5 lakh for making necessary arrangements. All the existing patients have been discharged and the out-patients are being turned away.

The hospital now has around 200 new fans, 200 tube-lights, some water cans and a few new basic amenities etc. But the facility still lacks sufficient paramedical staff and no major upgradation to face possible flooding of patients with COVID-19 signs. The distance between the beds is hardly 2 feet and the ward is congested for people to move about.

Add to it, it has no proper toilet facility. According to official sources, the hospital is being run with minimal staff strength and out of 40 nurses only 9 nurses are present. It also lacks basic requirements like sanitisers, handwash, face masks etc.

On Monday, the officials of AYUSH and Directorate of Medical Education, along with Charminar MLA Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, visited the hospital and inspected the Covid-19 facilities.

As the people residing in the vicinity have raised objections and expressed apprehensions of spread of virus, the MLA clarified that the only suspected cases would be admitted, and those who test positive would be shifted to Gandhi Hospital.

Sources cited directions of New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) AYUSH wing, which not only suspended all the operations, but asked its doctors 'work from home,' as they do not have the expertise to deal with the situation.

On the contrary, the TS government is directly engaging the doctors of Unani for taking care of COVID-19 patients.