Getting Rabies Shot In Delhi's GTB Hospital? Strays Will Give You Company

Imagine being bitten by a dog and going to a hospital for an anti-rabies shot, only to find stray dogs roaming around in the very area where the injection will be administered. 

This is the unfortunate reality at the Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital in Delhi's Shahdara area, where stray dogs roam freely throughout the premises, including inside buildings. 

NDTV visited the Delhi government-run hospital, which is also one of the capital's largest, on Tuesday and found the dogs moving about not only in the wards and corridors but also near the kitchen and the trolleys used to deliver food to patients. 

Among the areas frequented by the strays is also the part of the hospital where people are given rabies injections.

Videos captured by NDTV show three dogs standing next to the food trolley with two employees stand nearby, making no effort to shoo them away. Another video shows two dogs sitting expectantly right outside the kitchen. 

When NDTV spoke to Dr Vinod Kumar, the medical director of GTB Hospital, he said he had written to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) several times, requesting the removal of the strays. 

Pressed on the issue and told that some staff members had brushed off concerns, saying the stray dogs were almost like pets and would not harm anyone, Kumar said, "Listen, 20,000 people come here daily. This requires a public awareness program. You should show in the media that the public shouldn't feed them there. 200 guards cannot stop everyone... We cannot lock the doors."

Kumar insisted that MCD staffers visit the hospital nearly every week and try and take strays away. "They come weekly and take as many as they find. They can't catch them all at once because all the dogs are never present in the hospital at the same time," he said.