Retarded state of IMH

The Institute of Mental Health, Erragadda is in shambles. Lack of facilities, even as basic as an ambulance and apparatus, coupled with a free hand to anti-social elements, has turned the hospital into a hell-hole. With authorities lending a deaf ear to the problems, time and again, the hospital is in a state of limbo.

Many illegal activities take place on hospital premises. “The hospital’s electricity is being used by others, while the current bills are being paid by the hospital administration only,” said the professor.

The Mental Health Awareness Week took off on Friday and it will go on till October 10 at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), at Erragadda.

Though the people welcome it, the conditions of the institute are very deplorable.

For years together, the state government has been giving a cold shoulder to the plight of mentally ill patients who reside there. The government has a dormant attitude towards the many problems that prevail there.

“The hospital has now became an adda for anti-social elements. If we go behind the Superintendent’s room there are heaps of liquor bottles over there. We should not call it an Institute of Mental Health. It is in fact an Institute of Ganjayi Nilayam(marijuana house) and open bar. Drunkards and drug addicts frequent this area they sometime attack us too,” lamenteda security guard who works at the hospital.

“No one can enter the institute’s premises after 6pm as a number of local anti-social elements would gather there to consume alcohol, take drugs and be scot-free in the premises. The mob that gathers there is close to around 100 people. You can see them gambling. The worst part is that they even bring sex workers into the premises. All these illegal activities are taking place in the premises of the hospital itself. We are only five security guards posted at different places in the hospital. What can we do to prevent these atrocities? And the local police would never turn up here to prevent the illegal activities. In fact, there is an open nexus between them. We are unable to exercise our duties,” alleged a security guard.

Apart from this, all the in-patient wards are leaking. If it rains, it is simply a nightmare for the patients as well as working staff in the hospital.

“The newly constructed PG rooms are also leaking. The condition of toilets at the hospital is awful. Can you imagine the state of a referral hospital like Institute of Mental Health? It has been running for years without having even one ambulance for transporting the patients in need.

If the doctors want to conduct any medical investigations on patients there are hardly basic medical equipments. If the doctor wants to check the blood pressure of any patient, they have to wait for hours together for the apparatus. Many a time, doctors would come under attack by the unstable patients. For the lady employees there are no toilets available in the hospital. Our plight at night is unimaginable. We have no security then. And the problem of stray dogs has reached an extent of severity. The mosquito menace is on an all time high. No ALO (Anti-Larval Operations) takes place here. Nurses and doctors have fallen ill due to vector borne diseases frequently. There are many vacancies in the hospital but the government’s laxity makes things worse in regard to the maintenance of the mental health standards in the state.

In the in-patient ward, for every 70 patient’s there is only one nurse. That’s why the tertiary hospital is in a more placid state than a primary health centre,” exclaimed a professor. On Saturday, state health officials, IG, Jails and others are attending the Mental Health Awareness Week programmes being conducted at the hospital. “We are desperately hoping for something good to come through,” says a doctor who works in the hospital.

Of course, no development has taken place till date in the hospital even after National Human Rights Committee visited it and submitted a comprehensive report on the deplorable conditions of the mental hospital to the state government.