Videos showing gross negligence in the management and treatment of Corona Isolation Ward at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack has again gone viral on social media platforms. It is alleged that the COVID-19 positive patients were forced to lie on the floor due to shortage of beds and the doctors too are not attending the positive and suspected coronavirus patients.

One of the videos is showing that a positive patient, lying on the floor, dragged himself towards the bed after it got vacated. Another video showed that patients were forced to change oxygen cylinders by themselves as the hospital staff did not pay any attention despite repeated requests.

It is seen in the video that an infected coronavirus patient and another suspected patient were dragging an oxygen cylinder to the bed of another coronavirus positive patient and attaching it as no hospital staff and attendants were coming forward to help him.

The youths in the video said that the patient who was on oxygen therapy lying on the floor shifted himself to the bed after it got vacated. Although he requested the staff several times, no one came to shift the oxygen cylinder so he requested them to help.

Another man who was from Banki’s Kalapathar area said that he was tested positive for COVID-19 on 18th August. He was in home isolation for 4 days and then was shifted to a COVID Care Centre on 21st August. As he developed breathing problems, he was shifted to SCB Isolation Ward on 23rd August but no doctor or any staff attended him till Monday night.

Corona Nodal Officer Prof MR Patnaik of SCB MCH said that he would look into this matter, while the hospital authorities could not be contacted. SCBMCH, is a non-COVID hospital and has set up a 260-bed isolation ward to isolate positive and suspected coronavirus patients till they are shifted to other designated COVID hospitals. But the sources said that they don’t have enough beds in the facility.

Also, approximately 50 COVID-19 positive patients are to be shifted to designated COVID-19 hospitals, thus posing an infection threat for the suspected patients. Also, due to lack of space in the isolation ward, the authorities of the leading Government run hospital of the State are facing difficulty in shifting the positive coronavirus cases that are being detected from isolation ward in the other departments.

Source: The New Indian Express