HYDERABAD: The State Health Department's decision to send COVID-positive patients with little or no symptoms into home isolation may have eased the burden on the hospitals. However, the move has forced these patients and their families to go through unremitting agony.
For instance, a patient from Begumpet had to return to the same hospital he was discharged from after he was shooed away by the residents of his colony. "I had very mild symptoms and was undergoing treatment at Nature Cure Hospital after being tested positive. Four days into the treatment, on June 4, the doctors discharged me. I stayed home only for a day. I had to return to the hospital owing to protests from the residents of the colony I live in. In fact, they called the police. Because I’ve tested positive, stigma follows me. I fear for my wife and child. I don’t how they would cope with the situation," he said.
Express learnt that many of the 393 patients who were discharged from Gandhi Hospital had to arrange for transport to return home. Several patients hired cabs to go home with their families, putting the cab drivers at risk of exposure to the virus.
"I was in for a shock when my COVID-positive mother called and informed me that she was being discharged. The Heath Department officials only sought the opinion of the patients. I was not very comfortable with the idea as my mother is above 60 and her condition is not very satisfactory. We called a cab driver at night 11 pm and took her back, like many other patients who didn’t have personal transport," said a patient from the Secunderabad Zone.