Shortcomings come to fore

Nellore: Shortcomings in the functioning of trauma care centre located at the government headquarters hospital here came to the fore following the death of two injured persons of a road accident during treatment allegedly because of delay in offering treatment.

The two victims are among eight killed in a mishap near toll plaza at Venkatachalam, 16 km from Nellore on Saturday.

According to an eyewitness it took more than half an hour to open the entry door into the hospital when the injured victims brought to the hospital around 5.30 am on Saturday.

Many attendants of patients noticed the two persons, who breathed their last in the hospital, walking on their own into the hospital. They squarely blamed the hospital staff for their death pointing to delay in attending to them.

Nellore RDO Subrahmanyeswar Reddy expressed his displeasure over the treatment offered to the accident victims. He said that he found medical staff stitching the wounds of a boy when he came to the hospital around 8.30 am.

Incidentally, the victims were brought to the hospital around 5.30 am and there was only one doctor on duty then.

Not happy with the situation, RDO took initiative and shifted the injured to Bollineni Super Specialty Hospital immediately.

The hospital administration also failed to make use of 10 professors and assistant professors allotted to the Government Medical College to treat patients.

During a visit to the hospital, district collector N. Srikant, who recently reprimanded the hospital authorities for the state of affairs in the hospital, had directed Nellore RDO to probe into the lapses in offering treatment to the patients and submit a report with evidences.

Arogyasri delays treatment

Nellore: Doctors in Bollineni super-specialty hospital found dillydallying over offering treatment to the critically injured in the road accident as the officials and finance minister Ramanarayana Reddy has instructed them to treat victims under Arogyasri.

The reason for the confusion was that the doctors were not sure whether the victims are holding cards and the injured were not in a condition to say whether they have the card. Even if they have one, the card number is necessary to seek permission from the Arogyasri trust to carry out the treatment but the victims are in trauma.

The staff of Arogyasri was seen deliberating over the issue with the hospital staff. They were also seen asking some family friends of the victim living in Nellore about Arogyasri coverage when they came to see the victims after the came to know about the incident through TV channels. Although the injured were given fluids, there was confusion in going ahead with the treatment.

Ramanarayana Reddy’s intervened and asked the hospital authorities to provide treatment after DC alerted him about the situation. Additional joint collector Ch Penchal Reddy also spoke to the hospital authorities to carry out the treatment when DC took the information to his notice before contacting the minister.

Sources in Bollineni hospital said that it is very difficult to get payment from Arogyasri if treatment is given without their approval. They said that the finance minister had assured them to make payment through Chief Minister Relief Fund if Arogyasri trust fails to pay.

The sources said that they have carried out surgery to one of the patients after the minister’s assurance.

Meanwhile district collector N. Srikant told DC that Arogyasri trust will pay for treatment to accident victims whether they are covered or not under Arogyasri. He said that facility is available for both empanelled hospitals as well as other hospitals.

“The hospital may not be aware of this. We will inform them to extend service to accident victims without any reservations,” Srikant said.