Clarion India
HYDERABAD – An agitated doctor in Hyderabad Dr P Vinay Kumar has urged Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to spend Rs 500 crore to fight the rampant Coronavirus pandemic in the state, rather than splurge it on building a new state Secretariat.
Dr Kumar, a Surgical Gastroenterologist at the Osmania General Hospital, has asked the chief minister to reconsider his decision in a video message that has gone viral, according to a report in the Siasat daily published from Hyderabad.
Dr Kumar said that if the CM thinks building a new secretariat is more important than the lives of thousands of patients in the state and improving the facilities of the government hospitals, he can proceed with his Rs 500-crore project that KCR has announced in the middle of the raging pandemic.
The Telangana leader has come under strident criticism from opposition parties and the media for his move to demolish the sprawling old Secretariat building overlooking the Hussain Sagar lake, a legacy of the erstwhile government.
Dr Kumar said today people are going to Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) hospital, because they have confidence in that hospital. It is necessary to bring Gandhi and Osmania Hospitals to that level.
Outside private diagnostic centres, serpentine lines have been noticed as people are standing in the queue to take appointment for the Covid-19 test. People are getting appointments after a couple of days and the report for the test takes another five days.
The diagnostic centres are overloaded and their charges are exorbitant which the poor cannot afford.
The poor people are forced to visit private hospitals for the treatment because of their efficient service. They are afraid to go to government hospitals as they have no confidence in them due to their ineffective services.
The confidence of the people has to be regained by improving the services at Gandhi and Osmania Hospitals.
Dr Kumar revealed that the Gandhi Hospital is overwhelmed by the number of patients as there are more patients than the number of beds.
At the Osmania General Hospital, the iconic government run hospital, the Covid-19 patients are being turned away and being sent to Gandhi Hospital. He insisted that Covid-19 patients should also be admitted at Osmania Hospital by arranging requisite facilities.
He called for increasing the number of hospitals and beds in the state on a war footing as the number of cases in Telangana are fast multiplying. The state enjoys the dubious distinction of being one of those that have performed very few Covid-19 tests.
