ADILABAD: A tea vendor working as a daily wager at the Community Health Centre, Chennur, Mancherial, was videographed while connecting Intravenous (IV) fluid tube to a patient admitted there.
The shocking video, that has gone viral now, shows the tea vendor Md Lateef connecting the IV tube to a catheter. Interestingly, the Health Centre authorities, while claiming that Lateef was ‘just’ connecting the tube to a catheter, blamed staff crunch for the incident.
When questioned, civil assistant surgeon at the health centre Dr D Satyanarayana said that the recent transfers in the Health Department had led to a staff crunch at the Centre. “Lateef used to serve tea to doctors, nurses and others at the CHC. Since there is no staff, I appointed him as a daily wage worker for cleaning the Centre.”
“On Saturday evening, when he was sweeping the floor, a child’s attendant requested him to disconnect the IV fluid since the kid had to urinate. He disconnected it, and once the child was back, reconnected the tube. The doctor present there was busy attending a critical road traffic accident case,” said Dr Satyanrayana.
Mancherial’s District Medical and Health Officer Dr A Bheeshma has, meanwhile, asked deputy civil surgeon Dr Neeraja to investigate into the case.
The incident has, reportedly, come to the notice of district collector RV Karnan and he has sought details on the issue.
Staff crunch
With a large number of patients suffering from seasonal diseases getting admitted at the CHC, lack of sufficient staff has become a major concern now. While there should have been four doctors here, at present only three are allotted. Also, only four of the six allotted nurses work here