Narayana Hospital treats bigwigs, says no to Safai Karamchari

Sanjeev K. Sharma
JAMMU, Sept 3: In a heart wrenching incident the elite hospital treating bigwigs like top politicians, bureaucrats and others for COVID-19 has asked a poor Safai Karamchari on dialysis to leave the medical institution after he was tested positive for Corona.
Ankush, 32, a contractual Safai Karamchari with Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) was admitted at SMVD Narayana Super Speciality Hospital near Katra on August 27 for dialysis after he was referred there by ESIC Hospital Bari Brahmana.
“On August 28 at 10 pm, we were told by Narayana Hospital doctors that Ankush is COVID positive,” his brother Ankit told Excelsior adding that they were asked to take the patient to Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu.
“My mother sat with my brother Ankush who was tested positive for COVID-19 and she was not even provided Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and ultimately we reached the GMC in an ambulance where my brother was admitted,” he said asking if the elite hospital was only meant for bigwigs and has no place for the poor.
Similar was the story of Vikas, 24, referred by Narayana Hospital to CD Hospital on August 28 after being tested positive for COVID.
Vikas informed that he was referred to the Super Speciality Hospital from ESIC dispensary Katra as he was vomiting continually.
“I remained at Narayana Hospital for 10-12 days before being shifted to the Chest Diseases Hospital Jammu and they (Narayana Hospital) didn’t tell me anything,” he said.
When contacted Anshuman Sharma, PRO SMVD Narayana Super Speciality Hospital first said that COVID patients should come to the Hospital through recommendations by Director Health Services Jammu and he claimed that there is no discrimination on the basis of being rich or poor.
However, later he also said that the “hospital being a commercial organization can’t offer any of its services free of cost.”
To further strengthen his point the PRO now cited limited capacity at the Hospital and said: “We have only 26 beds for COVID patients which almost remain occupied.”
Lauding the dedication of personnel at the Hospital, he said that many of the staffers of Narayana Hospital including doctors are infected by COVID-19 while treating the patients and some of them have been shifted to a nearby nursing college of the institute as there was paucity of space at the Hospital.
On shifting of the dialysis patient to GMC he said that as of now the hospital has no facility of dialysis for COVID infected patients.
However, he claimed that within this week the facility will be in place and such a problem will not recur after that.
On shifting of COVID patient with his mother without PPE being a violation of set norms he said that the hospital administration will surely look into the matter.
When contacted Director Health Services Jammu, Dr Renu Sharma informed that Narayana Hospital is an independent institution but in general all the private hospitals are supposed to keep some percent of beds for the below poverty line (BPL) patients.
“Narayana is an autonomous organization and we have no control over it and as of now we have not recommended anyone to that hospital,” she informed.
It is pertinent to mention here that Narayana Hospital recently remained in news which also went viral on social media after BJP J&K chief, Ravinder Raina, MP, Jugal Kishore and his wife and many bureaucrats were admitted there for treatment of the pandemic and some patients from poor and middle class families were denied admission there for the treatment of the same.

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