GUNTUR: It is a new look Guntur GGH, which opened its outpatient ward recently and is treating 4,000 patients from neighbouring districts daily. One of the oldest and famous teaching hospitals in the State, the hospital gets patients not only from Guntur, Krishna, Prakasam, East and West Godavari districts, but also from neighbouring States for better treatment. During Covid-19, the hospital treated thousands of patients during two Covid-19 waves. About 10,000 patients were discharged from the hospital after recovering from Covid-19.
Though the hospital provides food free of cost to the patients, it is a different story altogether with the attendants of the patients. It is commonplace to see them running helter-skelter searching for food. Especially amid the Covid-19 first wave, due to lockdown, with the hotels and food messes closed, the attendants of the patients from rural areas and other districts faced a lot of troubles.
Witnessing this during an inspection, district in-charge minister Cherukuvada Sriranganatha Raju took the initiative to provide meals free of cost to all the attendants of the patients in the hospital. When he expressed his intention to the hospital management, they welcomed it and said the APNGO building on the premises of the hospital is vacant. The minister immediately contacted them and explained the situation, to which the APNGO agreed and let the building be utilised for providing meals free of cost to the attendants.
The utensils required to cook meals for 5,000 people within two hours and mineral water are imported from Chennai and tables were arranged on two floors to facilitate 300 people at the same time for which the minister donated Rs 1 crore. Government Advisor (Public Affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy inaugurated the scheme on Sunday.
The minister said providing free meals to the attendants of the patients at GGH is taking place for the first time in the state. He also wished that similar arrangements should be made at all government hospitals and lauded the efforts of Sriranganatha Raju. He said that everyday meals will be served from 11:30 am to 2 pm and from 7 pm to 9 pm by Madurannam Trust. Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharita Collector Vivek Yadav were also present.