This story is from April 23, 2016

SSG hospital strapped for water, patients' kin go thirsty

Water is increasingly becoming one of the most difficult thing to find for relatives of patients at SSG Hospital, owing to a scarcity that began early in March.
SSG hospital strapped for water, patients' kin go thirsty

Vadodara: Water is increasingly becoming one of the most difficult thing to find for relatives of patients at SSG Hospital, owing to a scarcity that began early in March. The multiple supply points on each floor of the five floors of the new surgical ward are running dry, with the patients' relatives finding it difficult to bathe and wash their clothes.
Drinking water is also becoming a valuable commodity with only one water cooler remaining functional near the department of emergency medicine.
Relatives, and even the hospital staff, are forced to walk to the emergency ward to fill their water bottles.
The hospital meets its daily water requirement through four borewells along with a supply connection from Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC). According to the authorities, the supply from the four borewells reduce every year during summer, but the problem usually starts towards the second half of May.
"Our main source of supply remains the borewells since we don't have get special supply from VMC, which is not sufficient for the hospital. The lack of proper rains last year might have caused the drying of the borewells sooner this year. But we still have supply, though interrupted, through the day," said SSG Hospital medical superintendent Dr Rajiv Daveshwar.
The patients' relatives are now lining up for their share of water near the taps that still have supply much like any other neighbourhoods with public water taps. "Every patient is accompanied by an average of three relatives. So essentially the hospital becomes home to four persons instead of one person per bed along with the staff, students, voluntary workers, outpatient department visitors, ambulance drivers and other contracted labours, making summers difficult," a senior doctor from the hospital added.

Daveshwar added that the reduced supply at the public taps and water coolers can also be the result of the hospital's attempt to keep the services functional. "Departments need a regular water supply for treating the patients and that cannot be compromised," he added.
Water wars
A hospital is among the last places to find men and women fighting and abusing others with empty buckets in their hands. But, the sight is becoming more common by the day at SSG Hospital.
With summer setting in and water supplies running low, those lucky to find themselves near a working tap are guarding it fiercely. Of the 20 wings at the new surgical block, only two wings have uninterrupted water supply in taps and the water coolers. However, patients' relatives from other wings are not allowed to use these taps and are unceremoniously sent away by the 'guards'.
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