The Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital in Delhi has become mired in controversy recently, after several videos purportedly shot in the hospital surfaced. The videos that were shot by India TV scribes showed dead bodies lying on the ground outside wards, and people who were left unattended even though they were calling out for help.
According to the report, there were no hospital staff members in the vicinity, and most of the patients did not have saline drips available to them. In one video a naked individual can be seen lying under a bed. Reportedly, there were also people who were lying next to an individual who had passed away from COVID-19.
While the sting paints a rather horrifying picture, the hospital’s Medical Superintendent says that there’s more to the story than what meets the eye.
As Dr Ritu Saxena, the Medical Superintendent of LNJP Delhi, puts it, “Everyone has conveniently forgotten or perhaps does not know what the frontline – the ultimate line of defence – have had to deal with. Doctors have risen to the occasion despite the fact that they themselves were in dark about how to deal with such a pandemic.”
In a letter shared with FPJ, Dr Saxena on Friday outlined the grim situation that the hospital has been facing since the pandemic began.
But before we get to the letter itself, let us just recall briefly that Delhi has so far recorded around 35,000 positive cases. LNJP incidentally is the biggest COVID-19 hospital in Delhi with around 2000 beds operational for COVID-19 patients.
Dr Saxena gives insight into the challenges faced by LNJP Hospital:
Immediately after the riots subsided in Delhi, a new challenge had arisen for doctors to fight with – COVID-19. From the initial days, we have tried to impart training and brief our staff regarding to how to fight this contagious disease. Right from the beginning we were anticipating that many patients, maybe in the thousands, would be affected.
Initially, we were getting positive cases only from travellers who had a history of international travel. We received patients only from the Airport authorities or from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML). Over the weeks though, the number of patients began increasing. And in order to tackle the increased rush of patients, we started converting our normal wards into COVID-19 wards.
This was not easy, as we had to follow infection control policy and many changes were required in the existing setup which was never designed to tackle such a huge load of patients. Hence, the Delhi government took the bold decision of converting the LNJP hospital into a dedicated COVID-19 treatment hospital.
But it was not an easy task. Like any other person, the doctors, nurses, and paramedics had a great fear of this disease – so much so that nobody wanted to enter the wards and interact with the patients. This required a change of mindset, and in order to do so, training and counselling sessions were held for the entire hospital staff. This had the necessary effect and their fear was lessened to a great extent.
The Emergency Department of LNJP Hospital was a one stop centre that dealt with the patients coming to or referred to the hospital. I head the Emergency Department of LNJP Hospital and with encouragement, the entire staff had taken to their task with full dedication.
Despite having a limited number of doctors and staff members, the Emergency Department of LNJP Hospital tried to see both COVID-19 patients and others initially. Later, with some modifications in the setup, and keeping the safety of staff members in mind, COVID-19 emergency team started working with a parallel non-COVID-19 emergency team with a few staff members for major trauma patients.
Over the months, the Emergency Department has had to face various challenges, which include shifting of Delhi Markaz and non-Markaz patients from the quarantine centre to the hospital and vice-versa. The biggest challenge was receiving them and sending them with proper documentation and data management.
Another big challenge was the frequent change of Medical Directors and higher administration. It was not easy to cope with the stress of frequently changing policies regarding patient management and to follow them without any error.
Since the LNGP Hospital’s COVID-19 journey began on March 17 when it received its first case, it has had to face many hardships and criticism. For the most part our efforts have gone unappreciated by the authorities and patients.
We have had to face several inquiries and harassment, but we have come out in the clear every time.
Various problems were faced in view of the infrastructure and manpower in the hospital, but we kept working endlessly. We never faltered when we faced complaints and solutions, and even when people tried to demotivate us, we never reacted.
I myself have forgotten what a good night’s sleep is. I do not remember when was the last time that I slept for the entire night. My phone has been ringing 24x7 since March 17, 2020, and I have not been able to look after my family as I should have.
But these are the sacrifices which I have no regret in making for the larger welfare of patients for whom we are the only light-post. We, the Emergency Department of LNJP Hospital, will keep working at this pace. We know that the worst phase of this virus is yet to come, and we have to handle it with limited resources when it does.
As team leader however, I do wish that all of us emerge successful against this COVID-19 war, and prove to everyone else that we did our best and we are the best.
Dr Ritu Saxena is the Medical Superintendent of LNJP Delhi. Views are personal
