Sewage, Pigs, Filth... Inside the Hell of a Bihar Hospital

The rains triggered by the onset of Cyclone Yaas had flooded the hospital premises. Patients were being treated in wards that were logged with sewage water.

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Video Input: Faquih Raja Khan

Video Producers: Shadab Moizee, Naman Shah

Video Editors: Purnendu Pritam, Mohd Irshad Alam

Pigs loitering around the building, used medical gloves and syringes dumped on the floor, used PPE and masks disposed of in the open and filth dumped all around the campus – these scenes are not from a dump yard. This is the sorry state of Bihar's second-biggest government hospital, the Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).

The rains triggered by the onset of Cyclone Yaas had flooded the hospital premises. Patients were being treated at wards flooded with sewage.

After every rainfall, the OPD is waterlogged. We do our duty in such conditions. There are insects that come in with this sewage. Some time ago, a snake slithered in. We don’t know where it went. We have to remain alert while working.

Bhagya Narayan, Attendant DMCH

Patients have to bear the brunt of such hellish conditions at the hospital.

We walked 10 km to reach here and the hospital is completely waterlogged. There is no doctor here at the moment. They are saying the doctor will only come next week. It is very distressing.

Neeraj Kumar, Patient

Doctors say this has been the condition here for several years. They fear that the sewage may bring more diseases and dampen the fight against COVID.

All the DMCH staffers work in this condition. They work with half their clothes wet. This is not a new thing. It happens every year. If this is the state of a hospital amid this COVID situation, you can imagine the kind of treatment patients are getting. More diseases will spread. We have to wade through sewage. We are tired of this sight. Government is apathetic. We feel we are not doctors, but bonded labourers.

Neeraj Kumar, Junior Doctor, DMCH