High Court furious over patient getting served food on the floor by Jharkhand hospital

PATNA: The Jharkahnd High Court has taken a suo moto cognizance of a photograph showing a poor patient being served food on the floors in a state-run hospital.

The court was spurred into action after a local newspaper published a photograph of a woman with fractured right hand being served food on the floor by the staffs of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, where she was admitted.

A bench of the Jharkhand court headed by chief justice Birendra Singh while taking the matter seriously issued notices to the state government as well as RIMS director, asking them to file reply by September 28.

“The act is not only inhumane but also a criminal offence,” the court reportedly observed.

The development followed after a poor woman identified as Palmati Devi with her right hand plastered following fracture injuries was served foods on the floor by the hospital staffs as she didn’t have the plates.

The patient had no option but to eat flood on the ground. The patient was admitted to the Ortho ward of RIMS, Ranchi, a premier government hospital in Jharkhand.

An internal investigation by the health department later found the patient was being served food on the floor for the past about a month, the local media has reported.

Strangely, the hospital administration is learnt to be spending around Rs 3 billion annually on plan and non-plan head.

Mineral-rich Jharkhand state is currently ruled by BJP chief minister Raghubar Das.

That is in sharp contrast to Bihar which, at least, has showed manner and courtesy while treating the people in distress.

Recently when floods affected many districts of the State including Patna, the state government asked the officials to serve foods to the floods victims in steel plates.

These utensils were finally gifted to the victims when they left for homes after the floodwater receded.

This image was published by Dainik Bhaskar