MADURAI: The Madras High Court has directed the Dean of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH), Trichy, and the Trichy Corporation Commissioner to jointly inspect the hospital following allegations of poor sanitation and maintenance, after a 68-year-old woman was allegedly bitten by a rat while undergoing treatment there.

A Division Bench comprising Justices CV Karthikeyan and Sakthivel also directed the district Collector to coordinate the inspection and to include in the status report an assessment of the feasibility of providing compensation to the elderly woman. The court directed the Collector to file the status report and adjourned the case to October 15.

The directions followed advocate Jayashree’s narration of the alleged poor sanitation conditions at the hospital in her PIL. Petitioner’s counsel, advocate R Alagumani, told the court that R Tamilkodi (68) was bitten by a rat on her left toe on the night of July 21 while recovering in the general ward after undergoing surgery for a leg fracture a day earlier. She also suffers from diabetes, the counsel said.

The incident allegedly occurred despite Tamilkodi’s family alerting hospital authorities about severe rat infestation in the ward three days earlier.

Following the incident, an advocate team, including the petitioner and her counsel, inspected the hospital and allegedly found poorly maintained toilets, broken or missing toilet doors, inadequate cleaning and water facilities, sewage leakage, stagnant drainage water, open drains near the wards, rodent access and stray dogs roaming the hospital premises.

The counsel contended that stagnant water could facilitate the breeding of vectors such as mosquitoes and other insects, increasing the risk of vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria, as well as secondary bacterial infections among patients.