Healing, waiting, more waiting—the long journey of KGMU’s stranded psychiatry patients
In a government hospital where patients often compete for beds, the ward has, in some cases, become a permanent home for patients like these.
In an unlikely turn of events, a treatment that should have lasted no more than three months for two destitute patients at King George’s Medical University extended into stays of 12 and 15 years. On January 9, after more than a decade of delays in legal proceedings, these patients from the female ward of the psychiatry department were finally relocated to a shelter for homeless.
Patients Sonia (38 years) and Astam (48 years), admitted to KGMU in 2009 and 2014, respectively, were being treated for psychosis and mental retardation in the Psychiatry ward for 15 and 12 years, respectively, due to what the hospital has called “delays in legal proceedings” for placing them in shelter homes. In a government hospital where patients often compete for beds, the ward has, in some cases, become a permanent home for patients like these.
However, two others remain to be relocated, having completed 13 and 14 years as patients at KGMU.
“These patients have been in the ward since before I took charge of the department,” said Dr Vivek Kumar, head of the psychiatry department, who took charge in 2021. “Many of the senior nurses have cared for these patients for years on end.” Moreover, two other patients with the same fate are ‘residents’ of the male ward in the same department—50-year-old Puttilal and 40-year-old Kuwar, who were admitted to the ward in 2011 and 2010, respectively. The process of relocating them to a shelter has also begun.
Delays in legal proceedings
Smriti Choudhury, supervisor admin in charge of the psychiatry department, in explaining the process, said that these destitute patients are treated and placed in shelters on magisterial orders from the local administration or a court order. “Cases of other destitute patients were not taking so long to process and dispose of, but we were hitting a snag with these patients who have been here for many years because their details were harder to obtain from various sources. We were sending out letters and paperwork routinely every few months to secure arrangements for these patients.”
Finally, she said that the university constituted a body that would look into such cases specifically and reached out to a network of non-profit shelters, finally succeeding in finding a new permanent home for them. “The patients have been asked to visit the hospital every month for follow-ups—their medication and daily care will be taken care of by the shelters,” said the HoD.
What it costs to bankroll a patient for over a decade
The hospital was financing these patients under the Lawaris Vipanna Scheme for unclaimed or abandoned patients, which allows free treatments for destitute individuals up to Rs. 10,000, with extensions to the amount if required. For Sonia, the university spent approximately Rs. 10,17,750, and for Astam Rs. 8,14,200, for medication and daily diet since bed, nursing, doctor, and hospital charges are free.
Sonia’s medication over 15 years cost the university Rs. 5,25,000, at a rate of Rs. 35,000 per year, and her diet Rs. 4,92,750, at a rate of Rs. 90 per day for 15 years. In the case of Astam’s medication, the university spent Rs. 4,20,000 at the rate of Rs. 35,000 per year, and her diet cost Rs. 3,94,200 at a rate of Rs. 90 per day for 12 years.
KGMU spokesperson Dr. Sudhir Singh, on looking into the decades-old hospital records, shared that these patients were all brought in by police personnel, along with a court order for the hospital to take them in, “and ever since they have been with us.” Nodal officer for the management of destitutes at KGMU, who coordinated the process, Akhilesh Tripathi, said, “The Psychiatry Department women’s ward had turned into a tearful farewell scene with senior nurses and long-term staffers saying goodbye to the patients who had been constants in the department for so long.”
