RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday lambasted the NDA government in Bihar over the "deplorable state" of the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Purnea, flagging issues including no ICU, multiple patients on a single bed and vacant doctors' posts.
Tejashwi Yadav inspected the hospital ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bihar visit on September 15 and called health minister Mangal Pandey an "incompetent and rhetoric-spouting" leader.
Sharing visuals from inside the hospital, Tejashwi wrote on X, "Last night, a surprise inspection was conducted at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Purnea. Watch a glimpse of the deplorable state of the healthcare system under 20 years of NDA in the video."
"This deplorable condition is not of some district hospital, community health centre, or primary health centre, but of the so-called medical college. Learn about the ground reality and send your curses to the incompetent, rhetoric-spouting health minister of this disastrous government," he added.
The RJD noted that the hospital has no ICU, an operational trauma centre, or a cardiology department, and the toilets are inaccessible and unclean.
He also said multiple patients were being made to share single beds.
"This is a medical college and hospital, but there is no ICU here. The trauma centre is not operational. There is no cardiology department, i.e., no heart disease department. Three patients are made to lie on a single bed. Bedsheets of patients are not changed even after 15-20 days. The toilets for patients with orthopaedic issues and those requiring disability-related surgeries are two feet high. There is absolutely no cleanliness," he wrote.
Flagging a lack of doctors and nurses in the hospital, he alleged that only 55 nurses are working in three shifts, with 80 per cent of doctors' posts vacant.
Medical interns have not received salaries for six months, he said.
"GMCH is a Medical College Hospital, but out of the sanctioned 255 nurse posts, only 55 nurses are working, and that too in three shifts. This means only 18 nurses are on duty at a time. If some are on leave, the number is even lower. 80 per cent of the doctor posts at GMCH are vacant. There is not a single permanent dresser at GMCH. The entire college and hospital have only four OT assistants. Many of the 23 departments are closed. Professors and assistant professors are present only in name. Medical interns have not received their salaries for 6 months," Tejashwi stated.
Tejashwi referred to the NDA government as "double jungle raj".
He said, "Prime Minister Modi is coming to Purnea in Seemanchal to shower rhetoric…. will he not see the massive shortcomings of his 20 years of governance in Bihar and 11 years at the centre under the double-engine government..?"
The leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly asked Modi to visit the GMCH in Purnea along with chief minister Nitish Kumar. "Prime Minister, please do visit this medical college in Purnea tomorrow and make sure to bring along the Chief Minister from 2005 onwards; otherwise, he will say, was there anything before 2005?"
Modi will visit Bihar on September 15 to inaugurate the Purnea Airport. He will also address a rally at Shishabari village.