Nitin Patel: Partial Rajkot hospital video shared to tarnish health care image

Gandhinagar, Sep 22 (IANS) Answering an ‘urgent matter’ question in the assembly about the video showing a Rajkot-based Corona victim being beaten up who later died, Health Minister Nitin Patel said certain elements were putting out fake videos and partial clippings on social media just to tarnish the health care services in the state.

The video which went viral on social media platforms depicted a Corona patient being manhandled by the healthcare services staff at Rajkot civil hospital and who later died. Based on the video, Congress legislator Poonja Vansh had raised the question under the urgent matter notice on the second day of the monsoon session of the Gujarat assembly. He asked the government as to what steps were being taken to ensure that patients who feel threatened and are afraid of getting beaten up, receive proper treatment and care instead of getting killed inside the hospital?

Replying to the question, Health Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said, “After viewing the CCTV footage, it was observed that the patient Prabhakaran Bhaidas Patil, had created a ruckus in the hospital. He started harassing other patients and misbehaving in the ward for which he had to be stopped. Following that after some effort, the hospital and security staff were able to control the patient.”

“The hospital staff immediately informed and discussed the patient’s mental health with his wife. A mental health expert diagnosed him with delirium. But only a portion of the CCTV footage showing the patient being manhandled was posted on social media platforms which went viral and tarnished the image of the health care services,” added Patel.

“We had the incident investigated and immediately held a press briefing, presenting the factual information of the incident to the media. The actual footage of the patient getting violent and misbehaving have been posted on WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter for the public to see,” added Patel.

Patel also informed that government hospital staff has provisioned facilities for family members of the admitted patients to get in touch with them. “We have setup control rooms, help desks and video calling centres and other facilities so that the families can avail the live status of their admitted family members. We have ensured every possible steps for patients’ health and safety,” added Patel.

–IANS

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