There are complaints from patients and relatives that conditions at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) are squalid.
There are shops selling juice, betel leaves and cobblers at the gate. A visit to the NICVD showed an unbelievable amount of dirt accumulated at different spots of the hospital.
There was stagnant water around the hospital and near the construction site of the new structures; building materials are kept in piles.
The covers of manholes are open with flies buzzing about. However, hospital authority blames patients for the squalor and the works ministry plus city-corporation for the piles of construction materials.
Some of the sewerage lines are open so the air is heavy with a stench.
Talking about the pervasive filth, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the hospital, Dr Samir Kumar Kundu, says: “We are trying our best; steps have been taken to clean stagnant water; people who come here to visit patients throw empty packets of food everywhere and though we try to clean up, the area gets dirty by noon.”
“We have been contacting city-corporation for the last eight days to take away the medical garbage and they said they will collect it on Friday (Aug 30), he commented.
The doctor added: “If the construction waste is collected every other day then so much rubbish would not have piled up; in addition, there’s no boundary around the construction area.”
Regarding the existence of shops selling a variety of items he says: “Every day, these are removed by the administration but after some time, they re-emerge.”