BENGALURU: The Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Disease (RGICD) , which was looking into only Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) and Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) cases had turned into a COVID-19 ward on Thursday.
After the Victoria Hospital was flooded with patients, the government decided to open up RGICD as a COVID-19 centre. However, with the admission of patients, several patients alleged that they did not get good facilities at the hospital and complained about the lack of hygiene food unavailability. The patients circulated videos explaining they were not provided with water facilities and in bathrooms, which had no mugs, soaps, and sanitisers. Further, they stated that they were not even provided with food.
"We were given food at 6 PM in the evening on Thursday, which was a little of rice and sambar and after that, we were not given anything till 10 AM the next day. We got Idli, Sambar and Coffee which was not sufficient for everyone. We did not even have any toiletries with us to freshen up. Is this how the COVID hospitals are treating patients?" asked a patient.
Another patient said, "There are about 20 beds in the same ward and there is no distance maintained. Even when after we asked for better facilities, nothing was arranged. We are told Karnataka has got the best hospital facilities and are well ahead in treating coronavirus patients, but it doesn't seem like it here. We have suffered one whole day and are terrified."
However the Director of RGICD, Dr C Nagaraj said the problem was that the hospital got a huge number of patients on day one. "There was a problem with the food, as the Idlis went out of stock, but we could have got more if patients asked for it. And we are giving patients food as per the dieticians. The patients had different demands. Anyway, we held a meeting and have sorted the issue. We are going to make kits of toiletries and hand them over to the patients," he said.