VIJAYAWADA: Government General Hospital Vijayawada lacks special rooms, due to which even government employees and their families are reportedly not availing of the services of the hospital. As of now, only the government general hospitals of Guntur, Kakinada and Visakhapatnam have the special room facility. Officials said that due to lack of enough space, there were no special rooms in GGH Vijayawada. Special rooms are like pay wards, for which one is required to pay `500 per day, per room.
Dr PB Manasseh, in-charge of the blood bank in GGH Vijayawada, said that he himself faced trouble while getting his mother treated, as there was no special room in the hospital. “With lack of special rooms, it is rather difficult for the government employees or even the middle-class people to avail of treatment in the GGH. Right from the beginning, there had been no special rooms in the hospitals. With this, not many people are coming forward. Even those, who are entitled to avail of treatment under government health schemes and benefits are also stepping back,” Dr Manasseh said.
Though there are two government general hospitals in Vijayawada city, neither of them has the facility of special rooms. Every day over 2,000 people visit these hospitals for out-patient services and almost 100 emergency cases are admitted in both these hospitals, which have over 1000 beds in all.
As of now only, Kakinada, Guntur and Visakhapatnam GGH have these pay wards, with over 25 rooms in each hospital. Even the GGHs in the Vijayawada city, which enjoys a capital status, are supposed to have this pay ward facility by now. But due to delay in construction of the new block at the city’s GGH, the special room services are at present unavailable.
Speaking to TNIE, GGH Vijayawada superintendent, S Babu Lal said, “We have been receiving many requests for special rooms. But due to the lack of space, we are unable to open those. A new building has been proposed for the maternity ward in the old GGH. Once the construction of this block gets completed, space for the special rooms will be made available and we are expecting that almost 20-25 rooms will be there.”
What is a ‘special room’?
Services of the special rooms are available for a fee. A patient has to pay R500 per day to avail of the service of a special room - kind of a pay ward
The USP of special rooms
In these rooms, there will be more privacy and patients, who will not want to be treated in the general wards, can opt for these rooms. The government doctors or employees, who want to avail of the services of these rooms, are entitled to get a subsidised room rate