Outside the government peripheral hospital in Chennai’s KK Nagar, Lal Khan is walking back to the building where his wife has been admitted. He gets completely drenched in the rain. The hospital was inundated by the heavy showers that lashed the city on November 10, Wednesday night and water had entered the block where patients were housed. Lal Khan’s wife is among the patients who were shifted out of one of the old blocks of the hospital into a new block that has been built on relatively higher ground.
Lal Khan tells TNM that his wife had breathing problems and chest pain and was admitted to the hospital the day before yesterday. She was among the patients who were shifted to the new block of the hospital on November 11, Thursday. “My wife was in the ward with two other patients. They were shifted in the morning, around 9. I was completely unprepared, I did not have an umbrella; there was no food or water inside the hospital so I had to go out to buy everything,” he says. While walking back from the store, he had a fall in the water and injured his hands. He slowly made his way back to the hospital, wading through water that had collected inside the hospital premises.
Dr Shakeela, the chief of the hospital, tells TNM that water has seeped into the ground floor of the older of the two blocks. The two patients who were admitted to the older block have been shifted out and moved to the new block. Though the new block is an outpatient and trauma block, since it is located at a higher level there is not much water inside.
Three motors have been deployed to pump out the water from the premises, Dr Shakeela tells TNM. TNM saw the three motors were at work, but the progress was slow, as rains continue to pound the area.
“There is not much to worry about. We are pumping water out and we are hoping things get sorted,” Dr Shakeela says. TNM saw many people inside the hospital trying to push the water out using rakes and wipes.
With the water levels in the KK Nagar main road outside the hospital also rising with time, there is worry that the water from the road would soon enter the hospital. Dr Shakeela, however, assures us that with the new block able to accommodate patients, they will be able to tide over the crisis.