Rodents have field day in government hospitals

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Follow us:WhatsappFacebookTwitterTelegram.cls-1{fill:#4d4d4d;}.cls-2{fill:#fff;}Google NewsIf you see a rodent in a State-run hospital, chances are you probably won’t waste time shrieking, not when it is considered commonplace anyway. The irony is that it is not just the general health of the patients that is at risk; it has gotten so bad that even administrators are hoping for a Pied Piper.“For many years, I used to get complaints that there were rats in the wards and the corridors,” explained a department head at the Madras Medical College. “To most of them, I had only one reply: ‘Come to my room’,” he added. Apparently, his room had a large crack in the wall through which rats and mice entered and exited at will, despite his having complained several times. “They put a rat trap there a few years ago, but the rats just use it like furniture,” he also said sardonically.Humour aside, red tape and budget cuts have hit hospital administrators hard as they are unable to formally contract private exterminators to rid hospitals of this rodent menace. In fact, well placed sources in the Directorate of Medical Education told Express that a tender was floated last year to hire a terminator to flush the rats out of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and a few other teaching hospitals last year, but the contracts were never awarded. “They even went for a re-tender a few months ago, but the status of that is not known,” revealed a DME official. In the absence of a specialist exterminator, hospitals continued combating rats the only way their meagre budgets permitted - put out rat poison and large mice traps and hoped children don’t take the ‘bait’.The problem was particularly acute in hospitals on the city’s outskirts where there were often reports of rat bites. These were easily defused by doctors at the hospitals as they were given preventive drugs to stop rat fever and other common diseases. “We are in a hospital after all. We need to contain the problems that people come with, even if it is something that they develop inside the hospital. That is why we treat rat bites and scratches quietly. It is mostly risk-free,” said a senior doctor at the Chromepet GH. Also, plenty of the rats thrived in the air-conditioned spaces in the hospitals, which were “great for them during summer”, added the doctor.The reason for the rats was something that all hospital administrators readily point to — garbage dropped by attendants and visitors. “We do our best to clear all the medical garbage and patients waste, which is a lot, but also having to clear the litter of the visitors is too much,” said a hospital administrator at Stanley Medical College Hospital.Would these hospitals ever get to be rodent-free zones? Not unless the government sent a Pied Piper to lead their rats away.first published:August 28, 2012, 09:23 ISTlast updated:August 28, 2012, 09:23 IST
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If you see a rodent in a State-run hospital, chances are you probably won’t waste time shrieking, not when it is considered commonplace anyway. The irony is that it is not just the general health of the patients that is at risk; it has gotten so bad that even administrators are hoping for a Pied Piper.

“For many years, I used to get complaints that there were rats in the wards and the corridors,” explained a department head at the Madras Medical College. “To most of them, I had only one reply: ‘Come to my room’,” he added. Apparently, his room had a large crack in the wall through which rats and mice entered and exited at will, despite his having complained several times. “They put a rat trap there a few years ago, but the rats just use it like furniture,” he also said sardonically.

Humour aside, red tape and budget cuts have hit hospital administrators hard as they are unable to formally contract private exterminators to rid hospitals of this rodent menace. In fact, well placed sources in the Directorate of Medical Education told Express that a tender was floated last year to hire a terminator to flush the rats out of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and a few other teaching hospitals last year, but the contracts were never awarded. “They even went for a re-tender a few months ago, but the status of that is not known,” revealed a DME official. In the absence of a specialist exterminator, hospitals continued combating rats the only way their meagre budgets permitted - put out rat poison and large mice traps and hoped children don’t take the ‘bait’.

The problem was particularly acute in hospitals on the city’s outskirts where there were often reports of rat bites. These were easily defused by doctors at the hospitals as they were given preventive drugs to stop rat fever and other common diseases. “We are in a hospital after all. We need to contain the problems that people come with, even if it is something that they develop inside the hospital. That is why we treat rat bites and scratches quietly. It is mostly risk-free,” said a senior doctor at the Chromepet GH. Also, plenty of the rats thrived in the air-conditioned spaces in the hospitals, which were “great for them during summer”, added the doctor.

The reason for the rats was something that all hospital administrators readily point to — garbage dropped by attendants and visitors. “We do our best to clear all the medical garbage and patients waste, which is a lot, but also having to clear the litter of the visitors is too much,” said a hospital administrator at Stanley Medical College Hospital.

Would these hospitals ever get to be rodent-free zones? Not unless the government sent a Pied Piper to lead their rats away.