Kerala Health Chief Unhappy With Modi And Rahul Visit to Burns ICU

Director of Health Services claims PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi’s visits to Kollam hospital interrupted their work.

Prime Minister Modi in Kollam following the temple blaze on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)

After the comments of Kerala DGP objecting to Prime Minister Modi and Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Kollam hours after the temple blaze, R Ramesh, Director of Health Services (DHS) expresses his unhappiness at the visit.

The health chief says their work was interrupted as they tried to attend to patients in their “most critical condition”, reports The Indian Express. Ramesh says the visits were ill-timed.

We have no issues with them visiting victims, but after two or three days, not within hours after the accident, which is a period we consider as the ‘golden hours’ to stabilise and save the lives of victims. Moreover, it was not just Modi and Rahul who entered the Burns ICU and wards, but their cronies and photographers, too. I opposed this, but it was beyond us.

R Ramesh

Modi visited the patients in the afternoon while Rahul Gandhi visited the hospital around 8 PM on Sunday. Modi was also accompanied by other party members BJP State President Kummanam Rajasekharan, senior party leader O Rajagopal, along with cricketer S Sreesanth, the BJP candidate from the city for the assembly polls in May.

One of the professors at the medical college claims that the demand to allow the Prime Minister into the Burn ICU, a “highly sterilised area”, left him shocked. The health chief further pointed out that the presence of the VVIPs raised cleanliness and hygiene related concerns.

Doctors and nurses in critical care units wear masks and caps and take extra precautions as even a minor lapse could expose patients to serious infections and eventual deaths. But these VVIPs and their cronies were hardly bothered about all this. Before the cameras, they even touched those patients.

R Ramesh

Staircases and lifts were blocked by security personnel for long periods of time, not allowing doctors and nurses to enter the Super Speciality Block

Even if the VVIPs want to visit the hospital, those accompanying them should be kept out of the campus as they have no business in a place where critical patients are fighting for life. Except for a few who wore masks that Sunday, none of the VVIPs or their security personnel were sterilised properly.

R Ramesh

While the DGP and Director of Health Services objected to the visit by Modi and Rahul Gandhi, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy defended Prime Minister’s visit and called it a “great relief”.