Medicos protest move to shift Chest Hospital

The State Government’s alleged attempt to relocate the Government Chest Hospital, Erragadda, to Vikarabad hasn’t gone down well with its staff. The doctors, nurses and the administrative staff of the hospital staged a protest on Tuesday. Boycotting their duties, the healthcare workers sported black badges and raised slogans against the government, terming the decision to shift the hospital illogical.

“Shifting of the hospital is not viable. How can it be done when the hospital is attached to Osmania Medical College to a place that is more than 50 km away from the city? Is the government not concerned about those patients with respiratory ailments who come from the neighbouring states? ” the staff lamented.

Senior doctors pointed out that if the hospital is shifted, it would stand to lose close to eleven post graduate seats in pulmonology, which received permissions recently from the Medical Council of India (MCI). According to the MCI rules, a teaching hospital should be within 8 km of the medical college.

The hospital has 670 sanctioned beds with nearly 300 healthcare workers that includes close to 50 doctors. Near about 200 HIV patients visit the hospital on a daily basis. The hospital sees 150 to 200 patients with respiratory ailments. “The government wants to shift the hospital for commercial gains instead of developing it into a full-fledged general hospital.

The in-patient block is a heritage building and the campus is a notified urban forest area. The hospital has a facility with hundred beds for HIV patients. Does the government want patients to travel fifty to hundred kilometres for treatment?” questioned T Pramod Kumar, chairman of an action committee formed to save the hospital.