Poor quality of food served at govt hospital: Patients

Ragavi (63) is currently undergoing treatment at the general medicine female ward after complaints of fever, she has been in the hospital for about a week. She said that the patients are given food at irregular times. “They give us Idli or Pongal for breakfast and then rice and kanji in the afternoon. But the food is often not cooked properly. It is not fit for human consumption. If we do not accept the food, nurses and other staff on duty scold us saying it is their duty to provide us food,” said Ragavi.

On Sunday afternoon, another patient, Jayanthi from Alwarpet, declined to accept the food as she had her relatives bringing lunch. However, the hospital staff forced her to accept the food. “The housekeeping staff in-charge of distributing the food came and gave rice. I said I do not want as it was bland and not fresh. The staff said that I should take the food as it is her duty to give it to me and I can even throw it later,” saidJayanthi.

When DT Next visited the ward, it was found that majority of the patients were not eating the food provided to them. Instead, they were keeping the food in the boxes itself to be disposed off later. When asked about the quality of food, a housekeeping staff said that the food cannot be of high quality as that of a restaurant and they are providing whatever they are authorised to.

However, hospital authorities said that they cook the food for patients using the supply from the government and hence the quality of the food is not compromised. The medical superintendent of the hospital assured that the hospital will look into the patients’ complaints.