Gandhi Hospital’s deteriorating sanitation, upkeep require immediate attention

The hospital that houses crucial inpatient recovery wards, is struggling to provide a clean, contamination less surroundings without the unpleasant odor, which appears to envelop the entire building through the day.

Hyderabad: The sanitation and upkeep of arguably the best government teaching hospital in Telangana State at Gandhi Hospital is crumbling and needs urgent attention. While patients here recover in the inpatients wards, they are surrounded by woeful sanitary conditions, leaky sewerage systems, damp and dingy common areas and haphazardly discarded bio-medical waste.

The hospital infrastructure, especially the hospital main building that houses crucial inpatient recovery wards, is struggling to provide a clean, contamination less surroundings without the unpleasant odor, which appears to envelop the entire building through the day.

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The walls especially at patient recovery wards, in the main building are stained with dirt from bottom to top. There are no washrooms for men and women in common areas in any of the eight floors and neither there is a proper seating arrangement in areas where patient attenders can wait. A constant and offensive putrid smell welcomes those stepping into the building. Lack of washrooms forces attenders, who often can be spotted answering to the nature’s call at secluded locations outside the main building but within the campus.

“There are two contrasting regions in the hospital building. The areas or chambers dedicated for doctors and care givers are spotless, well-maintained and they smell good. However, this is not the case in areas where patients and their attenders rest and move. I don’t have any option because I can’t afford treatment at a private hospital,” said Om Prakash, a welder whose wife is recovering at the general surgery ward.

Just a stone’s throw away from the recovery wards, bio-medical waste containing syringes, bed-sheets, hospital cotton etc are packed in plastic bags and stacked one upon another. The putrid smell and the damp conditions nearby the dump of bio-medical waste at the hospital campus is a rather repulsive sight.

“The bio-medical waste in these plastic covers is cleared in one or two days. The moment a batch of garbage is lifted, another batch is dumped here. There is problem with hospital sewerage system, as the drain water can be seen overflowing through manholes in common areas. Lot of broken hospital furniture like beds have been abandoned on one side of the hospital campus, which spoils the entire campus,” says a senior teaching faculty.

Officials familiar with the maintenance and upkeep said that two-decades of non-stop usage have taken a toll on the infrastructure. “We shifted to Musheerabad from Secunderabad in November, 2003 and it’s been more than two-decades of non-stop usage. There is a definite need for infusion of funds so that massive repairs can be taken-up on a large scale,” doctors said.