Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday has taken up suo motu cognisance into a news report highlighting the condition at Gandhi Hospital mortuary as a PIL petition.
As per a report by The Hindu, cold storage boxes at the Gandhi Hospital mortuary in Secunderabad were malfunctioning. This resulted in the rotting of the dead bodies which began decomposing earlier than usual.
Interestingly, Union Minister and Telangana BJP chief Kishan Reddy in a post on X, dated October 31, stated that about 60 cold storage boxes that were donated to the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic were lying unused and have not been installed even after two years.
“Out of 60 cold storage boxes available in the hospitalโs mortuary, only 25 were in working condition. Dead bodies were left to decay due to insufficiency of these boxes,” reported The Hindu.
Additionally, the staffers at the hospital, including the doctors, paramedics and police personnel were suffering to discharge their duties due to the foul odour spread from the decaying bodies at the hospital morgue.
On Friday, a bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Laxmi Narayana Alishetty was all set to hear the suo motu taken up PIL plea.
HC demands answers over dysfunctional Gandhi Hospital mortuary
The HC had made the state chief secretary, principal secretary of the Medical and Health department, Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare and the chief superintendent of Gandhi Hospital as respondents.
Furthermore, the state government will likely be issued instructions after the hearing.
Gandhi Hospital receives 15 to 20 dead bodies every day. Autopsies are conducted when the deceasedโs family or friends claim the bodies. The hospital is obliged to wait for 72 hours for someone to claim the body before beginning an autopsy.
However, under the current situation, when doctors attempt to perform post-mortems after 72 hours, the dead bodies have already begun to decompose and release foul odour, making their task difficult for them.
Located in the heart of Hyderabad, Gandhi Hospital, which is a prominent tertiary care institution in the country has completely been neglected.
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