Government Hospitals in India

Fr. Balaswamy and I made a quick two day trip to Hyderabad to purchase supplies for the new Bishop's house which is due to open in late March. Our driver's daughter is a nurse and he asked me several times over the two days if I wanted to see her hospital. I don't like to visit hospitals under the best of circumstances as I have been known to feint walking through empty ER departments. So I was pretty sure that I wasn't ready for an Indian government hospital but I finally relented and we went. Fr. declined to visit. Smart man.

The hospital is a former Queen's palace, now a 1500 bed general surgical hospital, no OB, no peds, no specialties like cancer. I'm guessing it was deeded over to the state sometime after the British pulled out in the 1940s but the building is much, much older than that. It apparently hasn't had a repair done to it since the Queen left town and it shows. Archtectually it's a stunning building. But the outside is covered in moss and broken stucco, tilework is coming off the inside walls, spit stains the corners of the corridors, stained glass windows are broken out of the entryway ceiling, and the grounds haven't seen a gardener in years and years.

Patients beds overflow into the halls. All wards are dormitory sytle. there is no such thing as privacy let along a private room. I visited the post-op department where two house doctors keep watch and two nurse take care of 60 patients, male and female in two long rows. No bed had a chart on the end. IV drips were running everywhere. They recouperate there for two or three days and then move down to less intensive care.

Ceiling fans provide the only air conditioning and the sun provides heat during the cold weather. The wards were mercifully cool but I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like when the summer months rolled around. The beds were all simple metal cots that looked like they were left over from WWI, or made the US Civil War.

Families are free to come and visit and to help provide care. Small groups were camped out in the halls having their meals on the floor while they took a break from overseeing their loved ones. But orange peels and other garbage gathered in the corners of the halls and fell down stair wells.

All care is provided for free I was told by my proud driver. I said it was amazing.