Hyderabad: 15 patients staying in mental care without family support
There are on average four to five natural deaths in the hospital every year.
Hyderabad: At least 15 patients are staying on in the Erragadda mental care hospital for six months as their families refused to take them. Five other patients are being accommodated at the hospital for two years as they do not remember their address.
There are instances where families refuse to take back patients, men and women, even after the court has ordered discharge. Hospital officials say it is difficult to persuade the families to take them back.
Dr V. Pramod of the hospital said, “There are two closed wards where patients have no attendants, patients referred by the courts and from jails are accommodated. In the two open wards, patients with attendants are lodged. Most of the patients are below the poverty line.”
According to him, there are on average four to five natural deaths in the hospital every year. He said, the hospitals usually discharge patients who have got voluntarily admitted, when they ask for it. On an average every year around 3,800 patients are discharged from the hospital.