Patients at crossroads in OGH

Ms A. Govindamma sits helplessly in front of the Osmania Hospital after searching in vain for the ward where her husband has been admitted and not finding it. In the absence of signboards at the huge public hospital that sprawls across 26 acres, finding one’s way around is impossible.

“I have been asking them since an hour for my husband’s ward, but no one can tell me the right place. I have searched all the floors,” says a despairing Ms Govindamma who rushed to the hospital on Friday morning when she heard that her husband had been taken ill at his workplace and was admitted to the hospital.

There is no reception counter or help desk either and hospital staff provides no information to patients’ relatives.

Most patients admitted here are poor and uneducated and need help to find their way around. “I came to see my brother-in-law who was admitted after he met with an accident on Thursday. The attenders took money to let me enter but when I asked where the ward was they told me to search for it myself,” said another patient’s relative, Mr Faruqh.

The hospital sits on 26.5 acres of land and has six annexe blocks. The staff is too busy or too unhelpful to direct patients and relatives. Signboards in Telugu would solve at least some of the problem.

The management has finally woken up to the problem.

“We have put the proposal for signboards to the Hospital Development Society two months ago and are waiting for a response,” said Dr Usha Rani, the regional medical officer of the hospital.

The hospital serves more than 1,500 outpatients daily and admits 200 new patients every day. Absenteeism of staff is another problem given these huge numbers.

Class four employees are routinely absent in the first 10 days of the month. There are as many as 243 Class 4 employees, and 70 per cent of them don’t attend work for several days after they receive their salaries.