NALGONDA: Patients at the Nalgonda District Headquarters Government Hospital have been facing a harrowing time as the X-ray unit in the general ward has been defunct for the past month.
The 600-bed hospital receives 500 to 700 outpatients every day, many of whom require X-rays for orthopaedic conditions, asthma-related complications and accident injuries.
However, as the X-ray machine in the general and orthopaedic department of the main building has broken down, patients are being shifted to the mobile X-ray unit located in the Intensive Care Block, which is about half a kilometre away.
In this process, severely ill patients are forced to be shifted in the scorching sun on stretchers, wheelchairs, and sometimes even on foot. The sight of a mother carrying her one-year-old baby along with an oxygen cylinder on Saturday in the blazing sun to another building for an X-ray, moved onlookers to tears.
As temperatures ranging from 40 to 45 degrees Celsius have been recorded in the district headquarters for the last 10 days, the patients, who are already suffering from illnesses, are facing further hardships due to the intense heat.
An asthma patient, S Venkat Ramana from Thipparthi, stated that the heat was so intense that he had felt feverish after he was taken in a wheelchair from the general ward for a chest X-ray.
R Lakshmamma from Miryalaguda said that the condition of the elderly is even worse and they are suffering immensely even when taken on a stretcher for an X-ray because of summer heat.
An attendant, C Mahesh, from Nakrekal demanded that the X-ray unit be repaired immediately or the mobile X-ray unit in the ICU brought to the general ward when needed to avoid hardship to the patients.
Another attendant, V Anita from Chityala, lamented that the government is spending crores of rupees on the development of the hospital but is neglecting the X-ray machine, which can be fixed without much expenditure.
Recently, under the leadership of district minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, modern lab equipment worth crores was donated to the hospital through the Pratik Foundation.
Similarly, reconstruction works at the dilapidated hospital building were undertaken at a cost of crores of rupees. Patients and their relatives are expressing severe dissatisfaction over the inconvenience being caused to patients without repairing the X-ray unit. When TNIE tried to contact hospital superintendent Narsimha Rao for a clarification on the issue, he did not take the call.