In Vanivilas, all you hear are cries of mothers and newborns

Bangalore: Sandhya is 23 years old and eight-months pregnant. She has been lying on a thin mattress with her luggage as headrest, outside the maternity ward since Sunday afternoon. “I came here with my mother and daughter around noon.

But not a single doctor has come to see me till now,” she said. Her mother rushed Sandhya to Vanivilas Hospital after she complained of a shooting pain in her stomach. There were no beds to accommodate her, and she had to spend the whole cold night in the hallway. Like her, there are several other pregnant women lying outside the general ward of the hospital for many days now.

The Deccan Chronicle team was shocked to see the plight of these women. Gulaab Jaan, who had accompanied her daughter-in-law, said, “Just after the delivery, the doctors asked my daughter-in-law to leave. They told us they did not have enough beds, and she had to spend the entire night on the corridor with the newborn baby boy. It was cold and horrible.” Before the delivery, her daughter-in-law was made to share a bed with another pregnant woman, she complained.

The government-run hospital boasts of well-equipped obstetrics, gynaecology, paediatrics and paediatric surgery departments, but does not have enough beds to accommodate many poor patients.
Mohammed Shareef, who had come to visit his daughter, said, “Doctors here are good, but the hospital does not have enough beds.

My daughter’s delivery went on well.” He complained that the hospital does not have a toilet for men, and many are seen urinating just outside the hospital. “It is unhygienic,” he said. Over the last five years, the number of sanctioned beds at the hospital has remained the same, while the number of patients has gone up by a 100 per cent.

The hospital superintendent was not available for comments as he had gone out of the city. Resident Medical Officer Dr Madhusudhan said, “There is a serious requirement for beds and the hospital needs more doctors. The inflow of patients is very high, but the government has not done anything.”