NMCH seeks water woes help

Patna: The Nalanda Medical College and Hospital has written to the health department, seeking a permanent solution to the waterlogging woes on the campus.

The 750-bed hospital was under two-and-a-half feet of water last Sunday after a heavy downpour in the city. Rainwater not only entered the wards but also the intensive care unit. Patients and attendants were shocked to find fish, snake and crabs floating in the wards.

Hospital superintendent Dr Chandrashekhar said he wrote to the health department’s principal secretary, Sanjay Kumar, on Saturday.

“The situation worsened once the rainwater mixed with water from the Saidpur drain. Water entered our campus through the western side. The Saidpur drain on that side is not a concrete structure and had not been cleaned properly because of which the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) campus was waterlogged.

“In the letter that I wrote the principal secretary today (Saturday), I have asked that the Patna Municipal Corporation and public works department be brought together to find a permanent solution. The drain needs a cemented cover and should be properly cleaned so that waterlogging situation does not arise. Till that’s done, the medical intensive care unit will remain closed,” he added.

The hospital superintendent said the ICU has been closed since Sunday morning.

“Though rainwater was removed from the hospital campus, including the medicine ICU, with motor pump, we are yet to open it for fear of a rerun. There are several leakages in the hospital through which rainwater can enter the campus, which needs urgent attention,” said Chandrashekhar.

A senior NMCH doctor, who didn’t wish to be quoted, said: “The waterlogging situation could have worsened had it rained consecutively for two-three days.”

Another junior doctor also said the closure of the medicine ICU has affected admission of patients in the surgical ICU.

“Patients from the medicine ICU have been shifted to the surgical ICU, which is now full. We cannot admit surgery patients and have to ask patients’ relatives to take them to other hospitals. The health department needs to act swiftly. We have somehow saved machines in the medicine ICU by placing them over bed but we don’t know how much damage has already been caused. It can only be known once the machines are put to use again,” said the junior doctor.

Courtesy: The Telegraph