CHENNAI: It has been over a month since he met with accident and the doctors at the Stanley Hospital performed a surgery on him. But his medical records are still elusive for him and he could neither continue the treatment nor the pain had subdued yet. Reason? He walked out of the hospital ward for a few hours and subsequently the hospital officials thought he was “absconding” and lodged a missing complaint with the police outpost.
“There was too much crowd in the ward and there was a big queue to use the toilet. I then asked for permission of the duty nurse in the ward and came down to brush my teeth and had breakfast. After nearly one and-a-half hours, I went back to my bed,” says S A Amanullah, who had 10 sutures on the right side of his head above the ear.
But much to his shock when he returned to the bed, he was informed that he would not be provided any further treatment as he had gone “absconding.”
“Since then we have been requesting the hospital management to either continue the treatment or give discharge summary. Because without treatment details and nature of injury, we are unable to pursue further treatment anywhere,” said Sajith Basha, Amanullah’s nephew.
However, when contacted, the hospital official denied the charges.
Amanullah says he had to live with the sutures for nearly 10 days. Finally, he said he requested removal of sutures and paid money to a nurse in the hospital to finally get it done. “Private hospitals refused even to remove them. They said they could not remove the sutures without discharge summary from the hospital where I was treated earlier,” says Amanullah. “The hospital can at least issue a discharge summary mentioning he got discharged against medical advice so that he can get treatment in some other hospital. But they are neither issuing the summary or giving him treatment,” said advocate V S Suresh, who had written to the hospital on the issue.
The hospital officials acknowledged that a complaint had been lodged with the police outpost about Amanullah being missing.
However, they said they had replied to the notice from the advocate and denied the allegations.
“We never deny medical treatment to any patient at any point of time. These are false allegations. But, of course, we are worried because we will be held responsible if something happens to the patient when he walks out of the hospital without informing,” said Dean of the hospital Dr Isaac Christian Moses.
Resident Medical Officer Dr Ramesh said Amanullah left for his home even as he was under treatment. “But now there is no restriction for treatment. The patient can come and get the treatment any time,” he said.