UP shocker: Sweepers become surgeons in govt hospital

TOI

• Sweepers stitch wounds, ward boys administer injections in Bulandshahr government hospital

 

Lucknow, 09 Jul 2012: State health minister Ahmed Hasan has ordered probe into reports of fourth class staff performing work of a surgeon and doctors in the district hospital of Bulandshar.

 

The probe was ordered after a news channel reported that the sweepers of the hospital stitch wounds and ward boys administer injections. Ideally, this stitching wounds is the job of a qualified surgeon and injection should be administered by a trained nurse. But locals reportedly said that such shocking anomalies were a ’routine’ affair in the hospital.

 

The visuals showed a sweeper applying stitches on the wounds of the leg of a child who got injured in a road accident and a ward boy administering injections to another patient. Another shocking fact which can bee seen in the visual was that entire work was being carried on under the supervision of the chief medical superintendent of the hospital.

 

The hospital has 23 doctors on its staff. They were present in the hospital premises when the patients injured in the accident were brought for treatment. But none were present when the ’act’ was caught in the camera. District chief medical officer SHS Danu reportedly said that at times help is taken from fourth class staff for distribution of medicines.

 

When asked to react on the shocking incident, state health minister Ahmad Hasan said that he has been informed by the district health officials that the men shown in the visuals are attendants of the operation theatre. But still, the minister said that he has ordered an inquiry to verify whether those being shown in the news are ward boys or sweepers.