Health workers' revelation of medical negligence in Covid-19 care puts Kerala health sector on the defensive

Amidst criticisms over Kerala lowering its guard against Covid-19, the state's health sector is now mired in controversies following revelations by a nursing officer and a doctor that some Covid-19 patients died due to lapses in treatment.

A person also alleged that he was kept in the dark for five days about his father's death due to Covid-19.

An audio message sent by a nursing officer of the Ernakulam Medical College Hospital to her junior colleagues stated that even as many patients undergoing treatment for Covid-19 died due to lapses in medical care, the doctors were protecting the nurses. This has triggered a fresh row over lapses in treatment. A doctor at the Medical College Hospital also admitted the lapses and both of them had also cited specific instances of patients dying due to improper placement of ventilator tubes.

While the government placed nursing officer Jalaja Devi under suspension and ordered a probe by the Director of Health Services, Dr Nejma, working at the hospital, flayed the action against the nursing officer for alerting her junior colleagues.

She also told a section of the media that many nurses used to respond casually to alerts sounded by doctors when the doctors noticed instances of ventilator tubes of patients remaining in an improper position.

Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja maintained that minor issues were being exaggerated and even those within the system were doing it.

Relatives of the patients, who died allegedly due to medical negligence, were also filing police complaints.

Meanwhile, a person in Kollam alleged that he was kept in the dark for five days about his 85-year-old father's death due to Covid-19.

Sulaiman Kunju, hailing from Thalavoor in a rural part of the district, died on October 13. Unaware of this, his son Noushad kept on sending food and clothes for him at the Government Medical College in Kollam district. On October 16, the hospital authorities informed him that Sulaiman had tested negative and would be discharged. Only when Noushad turned up at the hospital did he come to know that it was another Sulaiman. After further inquiry, he traced his father's dead body at the mortuary of the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital the next day.

Health authorities told DH that the deceased Sulaiman Kunju was not under treatment at Kollam Medical College but was at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital. A departmental inquiry is on.