Authorities of the Metas Seventh Day Adventist Hospital at Booty Mor here on Tuesday requested the Ranchi district administration to reconsider its decision to convert the hospital into a Covid-19 treatment centre.
A large number of people live on the hospital premises and the hospital does not have even the bare minimum infrastructure needed to treat such patients, the management said.
The district administration has also decided to use the hostel of the institution as a quarantine centre.
The district administration, however, refused to entertain the request saying that hospitals are needed to accommodate patients for isolation and treatment.
People who live on the hospital premise are employees of the hospital as well as a nursing home that is part of the facility and a high school on the premises. They held a protest on the campus on Tuesday, accusing the hospital administration of endangering their lives.
On April 21, the district administration declared the hospital as a Covid-19 centre by using power vested in the Jharkhand State Epidemic Disease (Covid-19) Regulations, 2020.
Right after that, the hospital administration raised concerns over the decision of the administration.
“Today I met Ranchi DC (deputy commissioner) Rai Mahimapat Ray to urge him reconsider the decision of the administration but he expressed inability to withdraw the order of the administration. We have not given consent for the same due to various reasons but then we are helpless before the administration,” S.D.D. Naidu, vice-president of the hospital, said on Tuesday.
The hospital is owned by the Protestant Church and it was established around 100 years ago.
“We have 33 doctors but all of them are visiting doctors,” Naidu said. “After the outbreak of the novel coronavirus none of them are coming to the hospital. We have around 26 nurses, but they are not trained to tackle Covid-19 patients. We have one small intensive care unit. We here to treat normal diseases besides delivery of children. Now the district administration has asked us to make proper arrangements. How can we do this when we don’t have permanent doctors and trained nurses?”
He said that employees of the hospital, nursing home and school live in 45 houses on the campus. A total of 195 people including 55 elderly persons and 43 children live on the campus.
“In such a situation if the hospital is used as Covid-19 treatment centre and the hostel as quarantine centre it may affect people of the neighbouring locality also,” said Naidu.