City’s only leprosy hospital has no doctors

The BMC- run Acworth Municipal Hospital for Leprosy, the only hospital of its kind in the city, houses 80 persons that have been cured of the disease, who have been forced to care for themselves and dress each other’s wounds. This is because they have been abandoned by their families and the hospital has allegedly had no doctor or specialist with five such posts lying vacant since 1997.

A senior doctor, who served at the hospital as a medical superintendent, said more than 30 patients who resided in the hospital have died since August 2016 due to various ailments.

The facility, however, has a medical officer who performs only administrative functions. Similarly, there is just one ward boy against the sanctioned strength of 11, according to hospital sources.

Amid the manpower crunch for specialised personnel, three patients with no formal training sit in the outpatient department ward and bandage and dress the wounds of both the in-house and visiting patients in two shifts.

Dr Anita Pednekar, the hospital’s superintendent, said, “We have a shortage of ward boys and nurses. The ward boys who retired have not been replaced with fresh recruits. Similarly, we need to hire doctors and nurses.”

“Patients have died here due to various ailments and we have got their treatment done at KEM hospital,” she added.

The average age of the 80 persons living here is between 55 and 60, and many suffer from age-related ailments. Ram, 58, a patient, told The Asian Age, “There are many problems, and the ward boy just comes for rounds. In the past two months a lot of patients have died. After the detection of any kind of ailment we have to go to KEM as no trained specialist doctor is available. Taxi drivers some times refuse us or demand more money, knowing our state.”

The senior doctor quoted earlier said on condition of anonymity, “The quality of life of these patients are quite poor. Only food and shelter is provided. For the rest, these patients have to be dependent on social workers and NGOs. Earlier, there were many patients. Now due to lack of proper treatments, the deaths have increased.”