Hospital turning de facto centre for abandoned

Aparna Banerji

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Jalandhar, September 9

The local Civil Hospital is forced to act as a de facto centre for abandoned and mentally/physically sick patients with civil society and NGOs not willing to take care of destitute people in the district. Major ashrams and shelter homes are refusing to take in such patients. With raen baseras lacking proper infrastructure for such people, destitute people stay at the Civil Hospital for months.

Raen baseras lack proper infra

• With raen baseras lacking proper infrastructure for such people, destitute people stay at the Civil Hospital for months
• The latest case is of an elderly woman, abandoned by her family, who was brought to the Civil Hospital by some persons
• The problem has been flagged many times and it also led to a huge controversy during the peak Covid years when the ESI hospital acted as a makeshift Civil Hospital
• At present, she is one of the four such patients receiving treatment at the Civil Hospital. Members of the Satya Sain Trust who offer help and rations to poor patients under treatment at the hospital said the condition of such patients was deplorable

The latest case is of an elderly woman, abandoned by her family, who was brought to the Civil Hospital by some persons.

The problem has been flagged many times and it also led to a huge controversy during the peak Covid years when the ESI hospital acted as a makeshift civil hospital.

At present she is one of the four such patients receiving treatment at the Civil Hospital. Members of the Satya Sain Trust who offer help and rations to poor patients under treatment at the hospital said the condition of such patients was deplorable.

Tarvinder Kumar Soi, trustee, Satya Sain Trust, said, “At any given time there are at least four such patients at the hospital. The woman in question is also abandoned. Some of these patients are often seen lying on the floor, even if we pick them up, they again get to the floor. Some take off clothes. There have been times when we took some of them to ashrams or ghars in the city, but the authorities there fail to absorb them.

“In some instances, even if taken, they died soon afterwards. They keep lying here and while some run away when they are better, others have nowhere to go. We feed them daliya, milk, fruits, etc, but eventually there has to be a place which takes care of them.”

Activist Surinder Saini said, “This is a recurring problem which has no solution. Also, many women are being abandoned. I have personally picked up many women from the sidewalks.I rescued one of them about a month ago and then took her to a care home. After some time I was told that she ran away from there. I have brought some to the Civil Hospital too. These are people without homes and no one is ready to take their responsibility.”

Dr Rajiv Sharma, Medical Superintendent, Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, said, “At any given time, there are two to four such patients at the hospital. We have also written to the DC that arrangements must be made for such patients.”