THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital (MCH) is known as one of the best in the state, but the ground reality seems to be different. The emergency services here is in shambles due to the lack of basic facilities and indifference of the staff. Besides the arrogant staff, the labyrinth of corridors without any sign boards confuse the patients and their bystanders.
The problems that plague the hospital came into light after a friend of a police officer who died due to the alleged apathy of the MCH emergency staff posted an account of the incident on the Facebook. ‘T’Puram Express’ does a reality check.
The Facebook post...
The cop was mowed down by a pick-up van right in front of his house. He was immediately rushed to the MCH by his friends and relatives. But once they reached MCH, they were left waiting beside the profusely bleeding cop for over two hours. He died due to excessive blood loss.
The indifference continues...
The cop’s is not an isolated case. Sources said that several patients have lost their lives over the years due to the indifference of the hospital staff.
“It is nightmarish. In our case, the staff, especially, the guards misled us about the direction of the CT scan room. Actually, there are two CT scan centres at the hospital. One for the head and other for the rest of the body. The second scan centre is located along with the MRI centre. We were directed to the wrong scan centre thrice. The staff will never tell you that there are two scan centres,” said Shilpa Gopinath, a government employee who got a first hand experience of the callousness just two weeks back.
‘Major changes on the anvil’
Dr Sharmad M S, MCH Superintendent, admitted that the hospital is lacking in facilities. However, he refuted the allegation made in the FB post and called it a ‘fake’ one.
“We are in the process of putting up sign boards in the hospital. I admit that the lack of sign boards is confusing. We hope to fix the boards within a month or so. We can’t solve all the problems at once. We are also in the process of upgrading the casualty so that the emergency patients can avail scanning facilities there itself. We will be able to carry out the process in phases only. We will require Six to eight months to resolve the problems completely,” he said.
Frustrated staff
Sharmad also said that the staff at the hospital are overworked. This could be the reason why they behave rudely. “The hospital still follows the 1961 staff pattern. So, at present, each staffer is multi-tasking. This may have led them to behave rudely. I have brought the staff pattern issue before the Health Minister and a solution may be arrived at soon,” Sharmad added.