The 550-bed Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College Hospital, the only tertiary hospital in the region catering to one crore-plus residents of the five districts of the Magadh division and Jharkhand’s Koderma and Chatra districts, has been identified to be drawing pigs, identified as the main carrier of the encephalitis virus.

The patients in the outpatient department, attendants and other visitors are forced to defecate in the open, attracting the pigs to the 45-acre hospital premises. “To compound things, the premises is not properly fenced, thereby facilitating easy entry to the premises,” said Mohammad Moosa, a former member of the hospital advisory board.

Encephalitis patients are admitted to the hospital’s children ward and this year too, at least three encephalitis deaths have been reported in the hospital. “Several toilets made decades ago for doctors, indoor patients and students have developed sewerage problems. On account of non-functional toilets, even doctors avoid using the facility,” said Moosa.

According to Ranjan Rakesh, the general manager of a private power distribution company, people defecate in the open space near the girls’ hostel too. Moved by the plight of the girls, his company offered to construct toilets for OPD patients, attendants and other visitors under the company’s social responsibility scheme. However, the project could not be executed as the company wound up its operations in Gaya a few months ago.

Asked about the prevalence of open defecation on the premises of the government medical college and hospital, district magistrate (DM) Abhishekh Singh said maintenance of hygiene and cleanliness on the premises was the responsibility of the hospital administration and district officials could do little in the matter. “It was for the municipal corporation and the pollution control board to take effective action and end the obnoxious practice,” said Singh.

Admitting the incidence of open defecation on the hospital premises, superintendent Dr Vijay Krishna Prasad said: “The previously defunct old toilets have been repaired and made operational, but that were not enough.”

RTI activist Brajnandan Pathak said the hospital itself was sick and needed thorough overhaul. “Only such patients who do not have the means to go to private hospitals and medico legal case patients are compelled to get admitted to ANMCH, as they do not have any other alternative,” said Pathak.