A horror of a hospital

The lead news in this paper on May 4 highlighted the pathetic state of hygiene in the city's Infectious Disease Hospital. Dark and damp walls, human faeces in overflowing common toilets used by patients and attendants alike, garbage littered around the hospital – who would have guessed that a government hospital dedicated to the treatment of infectious diseases like chickenpox, rabies, hepatitis, viral fever, tetanus and HIV/AIDS would itself be in such a filthy state where no decent treatment is possible? Even getting to the hospital requires a strong stomach as one must wade through ankle-deep garbage-strewn mud!

Given the nature of diseases the hospital is supposed to treat, why health and hygiene are not prioritised is the only question we have in mind. The case of this hospital highlights a general trend that exists in our public healthcare system, and according to health practitioners, a hospital should be cleaned twice a day to prevent the spread of diseases, and four times in case of a hospital dealing solely with patients with communicable diseases. Although the superintendent of the hospital acknowledged these anomalies back in February, this is the month of May and no qualitative changes have been made. Citing lack of adequate manpower is hardly an excuse anymore and we expect authorities to allocate resources to make it possible for the hospital to hire adequate cleaners, who actually clean the premises. Until we make it a point to make the management accountable for the state of public hospitals, citizens will continue to suffer and public expenditure dedicated to hospital maintenance squandered.