HC concerned over patients’ attendants sleeping on pavements inside SCB

Cuttack: The Orissa high court has expressed concern over patients’ relatives allegedly being forced to sleep on roadsides and pavements inside SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack due to inadequate night shelter facilities.

The court has directed civic authorities to regulate food distribution by NGOs that is contributing to congestion on the premises.The two-judge bench of Justices K R Mohapatra and V Narasingh has asked the Advocates Committee, including a woman member, to conduct surprise late-evening visits to the hospital at least thrice and submit a status report with recommendations, including measures to regulate NGOs’ activities.

The committee comprises High Court Bar Association president Manoj Mishra and secretary Avijit Pattnaik.The order, issued on Feb 5, was passed after the court took suo moto cognisance of media reports highlighting the issue. The court was informed that despite the existence of night shelters, many patients’ attendants continue to sleep in the open.Dr Gautam Satpathy, superintendent at SCB, submitted that “although steps have been taken to persuade the permitted attendants of the patients to use the night shelters but in some cases, it is found that they are reluctant to use the same on some pretext or the other.”

However, he conceded before the court that “the numbers of beds in the night shelter are not sufficient to accommodate all the authorized attendants.

”Intervening in the matter, amicus curiae Bijay Kumar Dash told the court that “many attendants and/or relatives of the patients are sleeping on the roadside and on the pavements of the SCB campus, in the open.”Countering this, Dr Satpathy stated that “the vendors and the outsiders who are taking the free meals provided by NGOs inside and near the campus of the SCB, at times, sleep on the pavements and roadside”.

He added, “Those vendors and outsiders cannot be accommodated in the night shelters meant for the relatives and attendants of the patients.”The court also directed the commissioner of Cuttack Municipal Corporation to identify a designated place away from the main SCB campus for NGOs to carry out food distribution. A compliance report is to be filed by the next date of hearing on March 12.The bench was also informed that only one NGO has official permission to distribute free food inside the hospital campus. Cuttack DCP Khilari Rishikesh Dnyandeo told the court that because of free food being provided by other NGOs, congestion takes place at both hospital gates, with queues spilling onto the campus precincts.