COURTESY HT JULY 21

Bodies lie in Covid ward of Patna’s NMCH, patients flee

A 62-year-old Covid-infected woman died inside a private ambulance (seen in picture) outside of emergency ward of NMCH on Monday, while waiting for admission. Parwaz Khan /ht photo
Ruchir Kumar and Parwaz Khan

ruchirkumar@hindustantimes.com

PATNA : The Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH) in Patna, the first government facility in BIhar to be declared a dedicated Covid-19 hospital, has come under intense scrutiny after pictures of a body lying in the isolation ward of went viral on Monday, a day after the Central team visited it.

An attendant of a Covid-19 patient, who shot the pictures, claimed the body had been lying there since Sunday. Seven patients were being treated in the room where the body was lying, he said.

“My mother has stopped eating since last afternoon. The body is lying on the bed adjacent to hers, and her condition has begun to deteriorate,” said Shatrughan, whose mother is being treated for Covid-19 for the past one week.

He said the body had been covered with a thin ‘gumcha’ (cotton towel) and a large part of it was exposed, causing anxiety among other patients undergoing treatment in the room.

The attendant claimed he had complained to the hospital staff but nothing was done despite assurances.

This was not an isolated instance at the NMCH.

Saurabh Gupta, attendant of another patient, alleged that two bodies were lying in another isolation ward since Sunday. A total of five deaths were reported at the NMCH on Monday.

Gupta claimed no doctor had come to attend to the patients in the ward since Sunday, compelling him to take a voluntary discharge of his relative from the hospital and shift him to the AIIMS-Patna.

Gupta said the immediate relatives of the patient were made to sign a form that they were taking the patient against medical advice, before allowing the patient to leave.

“We had no other option. We signed the form because we could not have left our patient to die at the NMCH, where there is no one to either dispose of the bodies or attend to patients,” he claimed.

Hindustan Times photographer was witness to a 62-year-old Danapur woman dying inside a private ambulance at the portico of the emergency ward of the NMCH after she was reportedly denied admission. Her two sons brought her to the NMCH around 11.30 am on Monday, but she died in about an hour after no one came to attend to her.

The son was heard telling someone on cellphone that the authorities were not admitting her mother, who was on oxygen support following respiratory distress.

Asha Garg, 70, who recovered from Covid-19 after undergoing treatment at the NMCH between June 16 and July 3, had also claimed a body remained in the ward with none to dispose it for 24 hours.

“We were treated as untouchables. Forget doctors, even nurses would not come despite our request in case of emergency. They would keep our medicines outside the ward and call us out to collect them, avoiding any physical contact with us,” she said.

“All through the 17 days of my stay at the NMCH, no physician ever came to attend to me or any of the patients in the ward I was admitted. The doctors enquired about condition of patients on mobile phones and communicated through the nurses,” she added.

NMCH principal Dr Hiralal Mahto defended the hospital administration.

“There’s a protocol for disposal of bodies of Covid-19 patients. The five deaths had taken place on Monday morning and we had left the bodies there (on beds in wards) for disposal in the evening, as the crematorium at Bans Ghat receives these bodies only after 8 pm,” said Dr Mahto.

Asked if the hospital did not have a mortuary, he said: “The hospital does not have a mortuary though there is one at the medical college.”

The distance between its medical college and hospital is around 3.5kms.

He denied allegations that doctors and nurses were not attending to the patients at the Covid-19 hospital. “We have sufficient protective gear and all our doctors and nurses are promptly attending to all patients,” he said.

He also denied that the number of dissatisfied patients leaving the hospital against medical advice was increasing.

A three-member Central team, headed by Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the ministry of health and family welfare (MoH&FW) had visited the NMCH to assess its condition on Sunday. Other team members were Dr SK Singh, director, National Centre for Disease Control, and associate professor of AIIMS-Delhi Dr Neeraj Nischal.

Patna district magistrate Kumar Ravi, who visited NMCH later in the evening, said: “The bodies should have been kept in the mortuary. There are some administrative issues, which we are trying to resolve and have extended all possible cooperation to the authorities at the NMCH.