Wheelchair row: Telengana Hospital rubbishes patient's accusation

Hyderabad (Telengana) [India], Mar. 18 (ANI): Days after an incident of a man using tricycle at a government hospital in Telangana came to light, the concerned authorities on Saturday rubbished the charges made by the patient's family while stating there is ample number of wheelchairs available in the hospital. "Because of the scarcity of the bed we had asked him to come again. He came on March 17, he presumed that the wheelchairs were not available. This was the presumption of his part. Actually we have around 150 wheelchairs and 220 trolleys always available, at no point is the patient denied the wheelchair," Dr Ramani told ANI. Meanwhile, the patient Raju's wife Santhoshi lashed out at the hospital authorities. "If they had provided us the wheelchair, we wouldn't have carried the tricycle. Though wheelchairs were available, they don't provide it saying it's for emergency patients," she said. Earlier on Thursday, 33-year-old Raju was forced to use his child's tricycle at the government hospital here after being unable to pay an alleged bribe of Rs 6000 for a wheelchair. The patient's family then alleged that the hospital authorities denied providing a wheelchair to Raju, who had suffered a head injury in an accident and was waiting for a surgery, after he couldn't pay a bribe of Rs 6000. (ANI)