No Staff, No Ambulance: Indore Couple Carries Son On Stretcher Between Hospitals In Heat

In Madhya Pradesh's biggest government hospital ecosystem, a 12-year-old child lay on a stretcher under a blazing sun, while his parents became the hospital staff, the ward boys and the ambulance. Between MY Hospital and the Super Speciality Hospital in Indore, a scene unfolded that looked less like a medical referral and more like a public indictment of the state's healthcare system. In scorching heat, the parents of 12-year-old Adarsh were allegedly forced to push his stretcher for nearly a kilometre after he was referred for a spinal problem. The mother walked alongside him, repeatedly dipping her chunni in water and placing it over her son's body to shield him from the sun. The father pulled the stretcher. There was no ward boy, no attendant, no transport support, only a desperate family trying to move a sick child through a government hospital complex that spends crores on outsourced support systems. According to the family, Adarsh had been undergoing treatment for around 15 days and was earlier admitted in the New Chest Ward at MY Hospital. He was referred to the Super Speciality Hospital because of a spinal issue. But when the family reached there, they were allegedly told that the child did not need admission and that only the file and documents had to be examined. The family then had to bring him back to MY Hospital again on the stretcher, on their own.