Quarantined patients agitate over extremely poor hospitals in UP. ‘Are we Animals?’, ask few of them

A video of patients protesting over lack of food and water at a COVID-19 government hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj has been widely shared on social media.

In the three-minute video, the patients admitted at the L1 category Covid 19 hospital in Prayagraj’s Kotwa Bani area can be heard complaining that their condition was like “animals” at the facility. The protest took place on Thursday after the authorities reportedly failed to restore water supply at the hospital for two hours.

“You have turned us into animals. Are we animals? Don’t we need water,” a patient shouts as more patients step out of the hospital building.

The person filming the video then pans his mobile phone to show people gathered outside the hospital entry and then also show a board of the hospital.

“Are you getting proper food,” the person filming the video asks.

“No,” shout many people together. “Its all kaccha-pakka (half cooked),” shouts an elderly man.

Some of the patients can also be heard offering money to authorities to provide them better facilities.

“Take money from us if you dont have it. Tell the authorities we will leave and go home if these conditions continue,” a woman, also a patient, shouts.

Prayagraj’s Chief Medical Officer, in a statement, claimed that the issue with water supply was sorted within two hours. “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,” the statement said.

This is not the first time patients have complained of mismanagement at COVID 19 hospitals or quarantine facilities in Uttar Pradesh. Similiar incidents have been reported from the state’s Etawah and Agra districts too.

A few days ago, the state’s medical education department banned the use of mobile phones by patients inside COVID 19 isolation wards in level 2 and level 3 hospitals in UP, but withdrew the order after much criticism