TIRUNELVELI: Non-Covid patients undergoing treatment at the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TvMCH) alleged that the hospital administration is forcefully sending them home due to the shortage of beds for Covid patients.
Sources said that these patients include those who are suffering from severe health issues including cancer and cardiac diseases. Speaking to TNIE, a 49-year-old cancer patient, admitted to the TvMCH, said that he was told to go home and return for treatment after the pandemic is over. "I have heard that when the severity of the cancer increases, it is difficult to save the person. I am feeling more pain on my stomach due to the cancerous tumor. But I cannot understand why I am asked to go home even though I am at the risk of losing my life," he added.
Another patient admitted to the hospital for gastrointestinal disease said that he was not given any treatment since his admission last Sunday. "During the first wave of the pandemic, my 67-year-old neighbour was admitted to the hospital for chest pain. He was forcefully sent home as the hospital administration changed his ward as COVID 19 ward. He died on the fifth day of his return from hospital. Now, I am being asked to go home. I fear that something bad will happen to me," he said.
When contacted, an official of the hospital confirmed to TNIE that since the beds are filling up fast with Covid patients, the hospital administration is sending the patients home. "We have 1,340 beds in the hospital's old building which has been turned into Covid Care Centre. About 600 beds - 300 by women waiting for childbirth, 200 by the children with paediatric diseases and another 200 by the orthopaedic and other emergency cases - were already occupied and we cannot send them out at any cost. On the other hand, we are receiving 60 to 75 Covid cases in a day. This might increase steeply as the daily cases in the district has crossed the 400 mark," he added.
He stated that the hospital administration has been sending only the patients who are not critical and could be treated at their houses itself.