The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : NIMS emergency medical department in mess

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Friday, Mar 28, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

NIMS emergency medical department in mess

-PHOTO: P. V. SIVAKUMAR

Help yourself: Patients are left to fend for themselves at NIMS.

HYDERABAD: A mere visit to the Emergency Medical Department (EMD) of the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) is all it takes to comprehend the growing bitterness among patients and their relatives.

With only 40 beds, and another 20 stretchers, substituted for beds, the EMD of NIMS is in a mess. Loads of patients are being sent back for want of beds and space.

Only a chosen few, those who manage to get recommended, are given space, that too after a wait of a day or two. The average patient inflow at EMD ranges from 150 to 200, of which only four or five are admitted in a day. The rest are referred to Gandhi, OGH or private hospitals.

The EMD is crammed with patients on stretchers. Inside, there’s no semblance of order, as doctors, attendants, paramedics and nurses vie for space and attention. Several paramedics also inform that there were times when patients had to be ‘adjusted’ on the floor, for few hours, before the arrival of a stretcher.

Frequent fracas over ‘lack of humane touch’ has become a common sight. “Hitherto, these quarrels were quite rare. Yesterday, there was a huge argument when a general medicine doctor failed to turn up on time,” informs P. Rama Rao, relative of a patient.

“My wife was on stretcher for two days at EMD before they gave her a bed. She was treated on the stretcher. It took eight hours for me to get diagnostic tests done and till then they did not treat her failing kidney,” T. Uma Maheswara Rao, a resident of L.B. Nagar says.

Prolonged test results

With the emergency lab at EMD being closed, the test results are taking a long time to arrive. “They are sending us for testing to respective departments. It takes five to six hours for us to get results,” pointed out another attendant Sujatha.

The authorities are pinning their hopes on the upcoming NIMS trauma centre, to deliver some relief.

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