Patients at Gandhi Hospital Raise Water Issues; Everything Fine, Says Staff

 Hyderabad: Gandhi Hospital experienced a temporary water supply issue earlier this week after the old motors were replaced with more powerful ones. During the replacement, both drinking water and washroom water were unavailable. While patients reported difficulties managing without water, the hospital staff and superintendent claimed that there were no major disruptions.

"We had six old 7.5 HP motors. Now we are replacing them with 15 HP ones. As a result, the water supply had to be briefly shut down. The work was done in phases, and initially, water pressure was low. However, all tanks were filled before the shutdown, ensuring that patient care and surgeries remained unaffected," said the superintendent.

She informed that the hospital has six overhead tanks each on IP and OPD blocks and a reservoir, which ensures uninterrupted supply. She added that the hospital's inpatient building is undergoing repairs and renovation, including lying of new drainage pipelines, while toilets are undergoing renovation. Due to this, all toilets in the building were locked, and patients were asked to use general washrooms outside. A patient with a kidney problem said that water was unavailable for six days. A ward boy confirmed that there had been no water in the ground floor wards for the last two days.

When Deccan Chronicle inquired, residents mentioned that water issues have persisted but they are now being addressed.

Harsha Gandhi, a TJUDA member, assured that the hospital administration is looking into these concerns.

A final-year student at Gandhi medical college said that lack of water in most washrooms has been an issue that they faced all through their course.

"I’ve stopped using the washrooms altogether," she said.

Meanwhile, there were many non-functional and unclean water coolers on each floor. Despite claims by the staff that renovation of washrooms has been underway for the last three months, no workers were seen during the visit.