From under-utilisation of the available resources to poor hygiene, the Lokayukta’s surprise visit to government and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)-run hospitals has revealed the poor state of maintenance at the public health facilities.
The Lokayukta had constituted 10 teams which visited a total of 21 hospitals over two days. Prominent hospitals included Vani Vilas Women and Children Hospital, KC General hospital, H Siddaiah road referral hospital, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, and Babu Jagajivan Ram Memorial Hospital.
According to the report, at least eight of the 13 hospitals did not maintain the expected levels of hygiene and waste disposal mechanisms were at its lowest. “There were heaps of garbage in many of these facilities. For instance, at Minto Eye Hospital, medical waste was found dumped in a room and proper disposal mechanism was not adhered to. Similarly, at Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, biomedical waste, which was as old as three days, was seen lying around,” an official noted.
Stinking and dirty toilets were a common sight at most of the hospitals, the official added.
The poor construction of buildings and housing, with seeping ceilings, was another concern. At Dr Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, the building, constructed in 2017-18, had developed cracks and poor construction quality was evident with damp walls and seeping roofs. The situation was similar at the Vani Vilas Hospital and Jayanagar Referral Hospital.
That apart, many of these facilities did not have adequate stock of medicines and faced a shortage of staff to provide efficient services.
Many of these hospitals also forced patients to buy medicines as several medicines prescribed by the doctors were out of stock at the facilities and inconsistency was observed between the stock registry and available medicines. “Apart from the shortage of required medicines, many hospitals did not have enough manpower to provide efficient healthcare facilities. In Vani Vilas Hospital, there were 413 vacant posts to be filled by Group A, B, C, and D employees,” said Lokayukta Justice B S Patil.
The report also pointed out the failure of the officials in using the available infrastructure. The Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the Jayanagar General Hospital, which are equipped with best-in-class equipment have not benefited a single patient owing to a lack of staff to operate the same.
Insufficient space to treat patients, missing information boards, distribution of uncooked or unhealthy food, and failure to maintain a cash declaration registry hinting at corruption were among the other major problems recorded.
Justice Patil said cases will be registered against all the officials concerned. “We will register cases against individuals and collectively against the department concerned and seek their explanation. We also plan to conduct surprise visits to many more hospitals not just in Bengaluru but across the state, in the coming days. Public healthcare plays a crucial role and we will ensure efficient services are provided at these facilities,” he said.