Patients weren’t dumped, allegations baseless: Report

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 21

A report, which has been submitted by the Director, Heath Services (ESI), to the Principal Secretary in response to the inquiry into the ESI Hospital patients being dropped near Domoria Bridge, fails to raise questions or hold the staff accountable for any lapse at the hospital. It rather calls the allegations “baseless”.

The report, filed on the basis of MS, ESI Hospital, Loveleen Garg’s response, claims the 60-year-old man left with the help of a woman whose son was also admitted to the hospital. The report claims he sat in an auto-rickshaw along with a younger patient and his friends and all of them decided to go to Bihar. Both patients went in the same auto, reached the site on the night of September 16 and came back to the hospital on September 17. The report says their treatment was promptly taken up.

While 60-year-old Raju is unable to sit, the report mentions him sitting in an auto and also contradicts the statements made by him in an interview with The Tribune. Raju (who is unable to sit due to sores on his back) along with Bikram was found “dumped” on a roadside. The report doesn’t question why a patient, who left willingly, didn’t even take his catheter off. It also mentions that the younger patient’s age is 20 and his name is Manoj.

The report claims, “The elder patient (Raju), who was admitted to the hospital since July 31, 2020, was found missing from his bed on September 16 and was declared “not on bed” by the staff. The patient turned up outside the emergency ward at 11 pm on the night of September 17. When asked about his whereabouts, the patient said he was made to board an auto by a woman at the hospital whose son was a patient and he was left outside a ‘raen basera’.”

Loveleen Garg has formed a committee to look into the matter. Responding to the repeated change in names and the catheter still being attached to the patient, she said, “I have no idea why the patient did not take off his catheter. None of the hospital staff was involved in the duo leaving the premises. The elder patient repeatedly changed his name and statement several times and is adamant on going home even today.”

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