Lack of beds at GMC leads to abandonment of patients

Lack of beds at GMC leads to abandonment of patients
Medical Social Workers Have Difficulty When Dealing With Destitute Outstation Patients
Preetu Nair | TNN

Panaji: Being declared disabled for life didn’t dampen his spirit. But the manner in which he was shunted out of the Goa Medical College and hospital and abandoned at the railway station without a ticket or any help has hurt his soul.
“We were left at the railway station by the hospital authorities on Wednesday. I don’t know if I will be thrown out again. I can barely sit and none of my family members have contacted me,” said Sahiprasad (32), who was admitted in the orthopaedic ward with a slipped disc on March 13 and was discharged with a catheter (urine bag) on Wednesday afternoon. He along with two other patients were later admitted to the GMC again by the Old Goa police.
Sahiprasad came to Goa from Basti Jillah in Uttar Pradesh seven years ago and in an inebriated state, fell from a two-storeyed building. He was immediately admitted at GMC where he underwent treatment for five months. Even as he was discharged on Wednesday with a certificate that he was “fit to be discharged”, orthopaedic surgeons at GMC admit that he will never be able to walk again.
“I had run away from home and I am not sure whether my father is alive or not. Despite several letters to my relatives informing them about my condition, so far no one has come to take me home,” added Sahiprasad.
The hospital authorities had dropped him and two others at the Karmali railway station as, “these destitute patients were occupying the bed for a long period”.
Worse, the medical social workers (one in each department at GMC) who have been entrusted the job of ensuring that such patients are taken back to their home, abandoned the three at the railway station with a Rs 10 note.
“They took us in a GMC vehicle to the railway station, handed us Rs 10 each and advised us to catch a train home. When I inquired about the tickets, they told us that we would be allowed to travel free if we show our GMC discharge card,” said the second patient Harish Kumar (42) from Kannur in Kerala. He came to Goa on July 13 and met with an accident at Margao.
These incidents also show that the health authorities have little faciltity when it comes to dealing with the destitute and poor, a fact which is also admitted by the GMC doctors.
“In the orthopaedic wards alone, we get about 20 to 25 patients “fit for discharge”, but left at the hospital for months together by their family members or contractors. As they tend occupy beds for long periods, we have difficulty admitting other patients,” said a orthopaedic surgeon.
Goa Medical College dean Dr V N Jindal said, “This is a problem that we have been trying to cope with for a very long time.
They are “fit to be discharged”, yet have no one to take them home and we can’t have them at the hospital for long because we have to accommodate new and more needy patients”.
A medical social worker at the GMC, explaining the procedure, said that a poor patient is dropped home by them on the orders of a medical superintendent, but agreed that they have difficulty when dealing with destitute outstation patients.
“We will have to see how best we can help these patients. We may ask the police to help locate their relatives or if they have an address,” added GMC medical superintendent Dr Rajan Kuncolienkar.

August 8, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition