The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Telangana government over reports of a 14-year-old AIDS patient being made to run from one state-run hospital to another owing to their 'callous' attitude.
The NHRC today said in a statement that it has taken suo motu cognisance of the report that the "boy, whose parents are not alive, diagnosed with full-blown Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was made to shuttle among four state-run hospitals for treatment within a period of 24 hours along with his aged grandmother."
The Commission said it has issued the notice to the Chief Secretary of Telangana and sought a report in the matter in six weeks.
"The incident indicates lack of infrastructure and coordination among different government-run healthcare centres," it said.
"The boy, who could be under trauma, being an AIDS patient, and his aged grandmother have suffered due to the callous and insensitive attitude of the hospitals.
"Instead of initiating treatment of the patient, they made them run from one hospital to the other in the name of jurisdiction and non-availability of facilities," the Commission said.
According to the report, carried today, the boy, who was undergoing treatment at NIMS Hospital for two weeks, was referred to Niloufer Hospital for Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) as the same facility was not available at the NIMS.
"He was denied admission at Nioufer Hospital on the ground that they do not take children aged over 12 years. The boy was then directed to the Osmania General Hospital (OGH), where no help was forthcoming," NHRC said quoting the report.
Reportedly, some volunteers arranged for the overnight stay of the boy and his grandmother in the hospital corridors.
"The next morning, the doctors in the OPD refused to see the boy and referred him to an ART centre at Chest Hospital in Erragadda, where doctors again referred him back to OGH to undergo a liver function test, besides seeking an expert opinion from a gastroenterologist," the report claimed.
"The Superintendent of the NIMS Hospital has, reportedly, confirmed that they do not take children aged beyond 12 years. Vinod Kumar, physician at ART centre of Chest hospital, stated that the treatment to the boy was not refused. He explained that since it was a Chest Hospital, the drug regimen could not be started without getting an expert opinion from a gastroenterologist, which was available only at OGH," it added.
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