Patients protest at COVID-19 hospital in UP’s Prayagraj

There are reports of protests by patients at Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj for no availability of water and food at the L1 category COVID-19 dedicated government run hospital.

The video of the incident has gone viral on social media. According to media reports, on Thursday, the patients of the hospital located at Prayagraj’s  Kotwa Bani area started protesting after the authorities failed to restore water supply at the hospital for two hours.

The patients can be seen complaining in the video that their condition was like “animals” at the hospital. “You have turned us into animals. Are we animals? Don’t we need water,” a patient can be seen saying loudly while some more patients seem to be moving out of the hospital building.

The person recording the video on his mobile phone pans his phone to show people gathered outside the hospital entry and asks them, “Are you getting proper food.”

“No,” replies the crowd. While, an elderly man says, “Its all kaccha-pakka (half cooked).”

“Take money from us if you don’t have it. Tell the authorities we will leave and go home if these conditions continue,” a female patient shouts.

Prayagraj’s Chief Medical Officer, in a statement said, “There was a problem with fresh water supply because of an electrical fault. We called an electrician and sorted the problem in two hours. There is always water in the overhead tank but the patients prefer using fresh water for their bath. We solved their problem in a quick manner.”

There had been reports of many such incidents in Uttar Pradesh earlier as well, from Etawah and Agra districts.

A few days back the medical education department of UP banned the use of mobile phones by patients inside isolation wards in level 2 and level 3 COVID-19 hospitals in UP which came in for much criticism.

The Uttar Pradesh government had on Sunday modified its decision over the use of mobile phone and allowed its use in Covid hospitals.

In a circular issued on Sunday afternoon, the state government has now allowed patients to carry their phones in isolation wards after making the disclosure to the officials concerned.

The ‘modified’ order came hours after Samajwadi Party president and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav tweeted that if the ban on mobile phones could check coronavirus, then the phones should be banned across the country.

He had alleged that the mobile phones had been banned inside COVID-19 hospitals so that patients are not able to inform their relatives and friends about the lack of facilities inside.