'We Feel Like Beggars': Patients In UP COVID Hospital Complain About Food Served

The government-run SSMJ Hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr district–where asymptomatic COVID-19 patients are admitted– was found to serving poor quality food when a senior administrative official went on inspection.

Some patients complained that they were made to feel like beggars.

"I asked for milk and the response from someone sitting here in the corner was - 'kya shor macha rakha hai (what a fuss you are making)'. So I said 'shor nahin macha rakha hai (I am not making a fuss)'. I am asking for food for my child, I am not begging you for alms," NDTV quoted a patient as telling the district magistrate.

"I can get 500 litres milk here... I am from a well-heeled family but at the moment I am helpless. I will leave in a day or two but I request you, with folded hands, that better food arrangements should be made," the patient added.

"In the morning we get dalia in polythene bags. One day there was halwa with chana," a patient said.

Before leaving, the district magistrate assured patients that the matter will be looked into.

"There will be improvement in the food. There are middlemen... that is why there is a problem. If the doctors do not come on two rounds every day, all my control room and I will get things sorted," he said.

Also Read: Mumbai: Body Of Accident Victim Handed To Wrong Family By Sion Hospital, Cremated