No beds for head injury patients at Nimhans Bengaluru!

NT Correspondent

Strange though it may sound, the prestigious National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), considered the top mental health institution in the country, does not have enough beds to cater to even head injury patients!

Hospital sources attribute the shortage of beds in the Emergency Ward to a slight increase in the number of admitted patients on Tuesday after more than 15 accident victims along with their attendants were reportedly seen waiting outside the hospital for beds. Families of the victims alleged that doctors at the hospital made them wait for a couple of hours before suggesting that they go to Victoria Hospital for treatment.

One of the patients, Guru, 42, had met with an accident near Jeevan Bhima Nagar around 6pm and was shifted to Manipal Hospital for treatment. As he had suffered head injuries, he was referred to NIMHANS. “We arrived at the hospital at 8pm, but the doctors and other officials failed to respond properly and made us wait for five hours. And then after 12:30am, they referred us to Victoria Hospital,” Guru’s attendant said.

Ironically, though the patients were referred to different hospitals in the city, most of them were sent back to NIMHANS as they had suffered serious head injuries. “Due to the negligence and lack of response from hospital authorities, we wasted a lot of time waiting for treatment,” said another attendant whose brother met with an accident near Chikkaballapur.

“We asked the doctors to at least refer us to another hospital, but they did not do it till 12:30 am. At least eight ambulances were waiting outside with us,” he alleged. When asked about this, NIMHANS staff said that there were around 200 emergency cases on Tuesday alone due to which the doctors were quite busy

One of the doctors told News Trail that the hospital currently has 932 beds of which 121 are allotted to emergency services. Later, 35 beds were added for critical patients. “Normally, 145 patients visit the NIMHANS Emergency Care unit every day. For the last 3-4 days, the emergency units are fully occupied as we experienced a surge in patients,” the doctor added.