Madikeri district hospital in need of urgent attention

MADIKERI: The Kodagu Institute of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital here is in a pitiable state with visitors complaining about the haphazard conditions prevailing there. Boxes of valuable material including medicines worth lakhs of rupees medicines are stacked on the floor and gathering dust.

Boxes of drugs are kept in the corridors in the public area, which are already wet due to the rain. Some medicines are getting expired and bags of waste are dumped in a corner. Moreover, stray dogs can be seen roaming inside the hospital and running around the corridor causing anxiety among visitors.

The district health authorities seem unconcerned about the prevailing situation in the hospital. Dialysis patients are suffering without proper electricity supply and, as a result of this, patients were forced to get treatment in dark rooms for a few hours on Monday night. The locals are requesting the government and the health minister to pay attention to this hospital and take quick action.

While reporting about the plight of the hospital and the patients, the resident medical officer of the district hospital even tried to threaten the Public TV reporter.

A visitor to the hospital said, “There is a lack of basic facilities in this hospital. The drug warehouse is located a little distance from the hospital building and medicines are going past expiry dates. The stocks of drugs are stacked carelessly in an open place and anyone can steal from the boxes. I was disappointed after seeing the pitiable condition of the hospital”, he said.

Further, he said, “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and local MLA Dr Mantar Gowda should visit this hospital and check the conditions prevailing here themselves. There are stray dogs roaming around the hospital, urinating on the boxes of medicine kept on the floor. The hospital itself needs a major surgery, and its functioning needs to be revamped by the government”.