THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Three suicides. Food served to patients near a body. A patient discharged with maggot-infested wounds. Troubles at the Covid ward of the Government Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram appear never ending. In June, when the number of Covid cases in the district was comparatively less, the MCH was the prime treatment centre. The first suicide was of an Anad native who was set to be discharged after testing negative.
He had escaped the Covid ward the previous day and was brought back. The next morning, the patient was found hanging in his room. The second incident happened in the evening of the same day when a Nedumangad native hanged himself. He was under observation as he was the primary contact of a Covid patient. The third suicide, in July, was that of a Kollam native under treatment at the same ward. Delays of over a week in handing over bodies after Covid tests also created a controversy. In August, the authorities failed to remove the body of a patient — who had died in the early hours — from the Covid ward before serving breakfast.
The ensuing uproar has barely subsided, and the hospital is in the eye of a storm again for discharging a patient from the Covid ward with maggots in his wounds. Each time, the health department launched a probe and the hospital conducted internal inquiries. But nothing much seems to have changed. A top official with the hospital said Covid care is plagued by many issues, from staff crunch to giving psychological support to patients.
“The latest incident happened because the patient has a serious wound on his neck. We were treating it carefully but somehow a lapse seems to have happened, and not necessarily from our side. After he tested negative, the patient was moved to his house in an ambulance. It’s also possible that he got infected from there. We are conducting an internal inquiry and anyone found to have shirked the duty of cleaning the wound will be answerable,” official said.
