John Wilbert and Sarthak Kanjilall
Port Blair, Jan 21: Once again the lone referral hospital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital is in the news for wrong reasons. According to details, dozens of patients today had to wait for hours in front of room number 67 of GB Pant Hospital to submit their urine samples for various tests.
As per reports, the nurse who was supposed to collect the urine samples from patients refused to collect the same, saying that she cannot collect the samples because the lab is not clean enough.
Clueless patients who waited there for several hours was then asked by medical staffs to raise the issue with the Directorate of Health Services following which dozens of patients, who were already suffering from some or the other kind of health issues came to the DHS office to raise this issue. Sadly the Director was not available to listen to their grievances.
Suffering patients met the Deputy Director, Dr Amitabh Dey and Dr Bairagi but they got no help.
The entire episode continued for a long time, where the patients kept running from pillar to post seeking help, however, finally when the authorities learnt that matter is getting noted and media was informed, the hospital authorities immediately cleaned the room and collected urine samples.
When contacted the Director of Health Services, Dr. Omkar Singh today said that this delay happened because lack of sanitation workers as the contract for Sanitation workers on outsource basis got expired on 9th Jan 2020. However, the DHS added that as soon as he came to know about the matter he directed the staffs of Health Department to carryout necessary cleanliness inside the lab after which the collection of urine samples began. The DHS assured that he is taking necessary steps to get sanitation workers for the Hospital on time.
