MADURAI: The rehabilitation ward, arranged at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) about nine months ago to house patients abandoned by families, now wears an abandoned look with no social worker/NGO volunteer taking care of the patients.
The 12-bedded rehabilitation ward on the first floor of the Trauma Care Centre (TCC) block was inaugurated on December 31 last year. Patients abandoned by families and those who do not have caretakers are being treated at the ward until rehabilitation. Upon recovery, the patients would be either shifted to shelter homes or reunited with families, with the help of the police and the social welfare department.
Since its inception, the ward manned by a social worker from the city-based NGO -- Idhayam Trust, also had a staff nurse and a cleanliness worker of GRH posted as ward in-charge as an additional duty.
Taking turns, the social workers who were at the ward from morning till late evening took care of the basic needs of the patients who are elderly and mostly bedridden due to leg injuries or age-related ailments.
TNIE, a few months ago, observed that the social worker used to change diapers, feed meals, walk patients to the toilets, change their clothes, arrange haircuts and struck conversations with them throughout the day, in efforts to soothe their physical and mental agony.
However, when the TCC block was converted into an annexe Covid wing, the patients were sent to the shelter home of Idhayam Trust in mid-April. Later, the shelter home was sealed on July 1 after allegations of child trafficking rose against the NGO's executive director G Sivakumar who was arrested and lodged in prison.
Meanwhile, the ward reopened at the TCC block in the first week of July, but without a caregiver. Presently, 10 patients, including six men and four women, are lodged at the ward. Due to a lack of support from the District Social Welfare Department to rehabilitate or reunite with families, even those patients who are fit for discharge continue to be lodged at the ward, sources said.
"Although the staff nurse and cleanliness workers who are assigned duty tend to the needs of the patients at the rehabilitation ward now, there is certainly a need for service-minded volunteers or social workers to be present with them as they require individual care," told a hospital official.
The GRH Dean Dr A Rathinavel shared, "Letters seeking volunteers or registered NGOs that are willing to tie up with the hospital to provide social workers and to shift them to shelter homes/reunite with families after treatment, were sent to the District Social Welfare Department time and again. However, it is learnt that hospital workers, as well as volunteers, are hesitant to take up the responsibility."
The District Social Welfare Officer (in-charge) Helen Rose was unavailable for comment. Collector Dr S Aneesh Sekhar told TNIE, "The issue was not brought to my notice so far. It will be resolved in about a week, and necessary help would be arranged."
Rewind
The dedicated rehabilitation ward was set up at the hospital in December last year, days after the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) issued a notice to the Director of Medical Education (DME) over an incident in which a 35-year-old injured, homeless man from Godhra in Gujarat was allegedly shunned by the GRH staff due to absence of a caretaker.
The ward at GRH, a first in South Tamil Nadu, was arranged a fortnight after a rehabilitation ward with 40 beds was unveiled at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai, for the first time in Tamil Nadu.
In February, a PIL was filed at the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court seeking an order to establish dedicated wards for abandoned patients at all government medical college hospitals, akin to the ones at Chennai and Madurai.