AIIMS Fails to Provide Night Shelter to Poor Despite SC Order

AIIMS still faces a crunch of accommodation in the night shelters.

People take refuge in these bus stops outside AIIMS. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

Despite a Supreme Court mandate issued four years ago to provide night shelters for outstation patients and attendants at AIIMS, the poor still struggle to find some space to rest on the pavements outside the hospital in Delhi’s biting cold.

The night shelters in AIIMS can barely fit 200 patients who stay back for follow-up treatment. Recently, AIIMS did take a small step towards addressing the problem of accommodation – a 120-bed night shelter was inaugurated for AIIMS outstation patients by Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Thursday.

The patients who take refuge in footpaths outside the hospital have to resort to lighting up small fires and covering up using cheap plastic sheets to keep themselves warm. The blankets given in charity are also of poor quality.

The shelter that was inaugurated by Nadda was set up by Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Officers’ Wives’ Association and AIIMS. The accommodation will be given out on ‘first-come-first-serve’ basis.

Read the full story here.