Osmania Hospital: No Angiogram for heart patients since 1 year

Hyderabad: Even as demands for a new modern building for Osmania General Hospital (OGH) are growing, the state-run healthcare centre’s existing has not been in order thanks to government apathy. From the last one-and-a-half-year, the hospital’s angiogram machine has been out of order, due to which the administration has been turning away patients.

Angiography is a procedure that can be both diagnostic and therapeutic for heart patients. It is more or less the gold standard for checking blockages in the arterial system of a human being. An angiogram machine detects blockages using X-rays taken during the injection of a contrast agent or an iodine dye. Given that Osmania Hospital is one of the main state-run healthcare centres in Telangana, lack of the machine is causing severe hardships.

According to doctors from Osmania General Hospital, the angiogram machine has been out of order from well over a year now, forcing underprivileged patients to instead get the procedure done at private hospitals. The administration had informed about the machine breaking down to the Telangana State Medical Services & Infrastructure Development Corporation (TSMSIDC)

“We cannot directly purchase anything, and have to inform the TSMSIDC. The Telangana government had sanctioned money also, but the TSMIDC has to procure it. The money was sanctioned in January itself,” a senior doctor from Osmania General Hospital told Siasat.com on condition of anonymity.

Another doctor, who also did not want to be quoted, said that an angiogram is a very important machine, and that the hospital needs one urgently for patients, and also for cardiology students as well. When asked what of the patients who to go through the procedure as part of their treatment, the second doctor replied saying,”Even Gandhi hospital does not have it. We have the interest and 21 PG students as well who can use it to learn and treat people.”

Main building still shut:

As of now, the main building of Osmania General Hospital, which is a heritage structure, is shut and is not in use. It was shut last year in July after water flooded the ground floor during the monsoon. However, it was found that the flooding was caused by a blocked nala or sewage line underneath and not due to the rains. The state government has since then not reopened it, and all patients have been shifted to temporary blocks due to a lack of space.

Moreover, two days ago, AIMIM president and Hyderabad Lok Sabha member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi today visited the state-run Osmania General Hospital (OGH), and demanded the state government to construct a new building. Owaisi even indirectly gunned for the old heritage structure of OGH to be taken down, by saying that his party is not concerned if the state government keeps or demolishes it.

History of Osmania General Hospital

OGH was completed in 1925, after Hyderabad was affected by the bubonic plague around 1911. The city administration then took care of the issue, following which the then Nizam Osman Ali Khan (1911-48) set up the City Improvement Board (CIB) in 1912 to improve Hyderabad’s infrastructure. It was designed by architect Vincent Esch, who also designed the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata.

The OGH’s old building (along with others like High Court and City College) is a fine example of the Osmanian style or Indo-Saracenic genre of architecture and is an integral part of Hyderabad’s 20th century riverscape and skyline. The CIB during the reign of Osman Ali Khan had transformed the medieval city into a modern metropolis, complete with infrastructure like the High Court, railway stations, schools and OGH.