Cleanliness Not A Concern At Lady Ridgeway Hospital

By Nirmala Kannangara

It is the country’s primary healthcare establishment for children, but the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children in Colombo is far from child friendly due to its sheer lack of cleanliness, general neglect and the shortage of basic facilities for its young patients.
From bed shortages to a shocking level of uncleanliness, the Lady Ridgeway Hospital is more a hell rather than the expected haven it is meant to be for the sick children. The hospital is so over-crowded that in most of the wards, two children have to occupy one small bed due to the lack of beds.

“We are deprived of a proper sanitary facility here as the toilets are smelling and not clean. We bring our children to the LRH to get the best treatment but when you take them to the toilets they automatically fall sick,” claimed one mother whose child was admitted due to dengue hemorrhagic fever.

According to her, the child was admitted to the hospital on Monday afternoon but so far the doctors and the nurses who attended on the child have failed to discuss the child’s condition with her (mother).

“Whenever I ask about my son’s condition they keep on saying that the child is under observation and it is too early for them to tell me about the child’s condition,” the anguished mother told The Sunday Leader on Thursday.

It is a common sight in most of the wards at the LRH to see how children are sharing one tiny bed making it difficult for the children’s mother or guardian to stay with them owing to lack of space.

“Since two children have to share a bed, there is no space for the guardians even to sit. The beds are kept closer to each other and we have found it extremely difficult to find a proper place for us to keep our chairs even,” a mother complained.

For some, the doctors and the nurses in their wards were gods to them while most complained about the nursing staff at the hospital.

“We have to look after the child’s condition and we were told to inform the nurses if the child’s condition gets worse. There are many children with high fever in this ward but shockingly most of the time the nurses do not attend on the very sick child instead they ask us to keep on fermenting the child until the fever goes down,” a mother of an eight year old boy told The Sunday Leader.

According to most of the mothers we spoke to, none of them take their children to the toilets, as they were smutty and smelling.

“How could anyone with a nose go to these toilets? We do not need luxury facilities but why can’t the hospital authorities instruct the relevant departments to keep the toilets clean? In addition the bathing area is also fully open. There are no showers in the washing areas, and the hospital has provided only a few taps for washing purposes. It is difficult to have a shower as the taps are very low and no basins or buckets are provided to fill water for a shower,” a mother complained.

“We can’t expect the hospital to change the linen regularly but at least they can change the pillow covers and the bed linen once a patient is discharged but they don’t even do that here,” she complained.

When mothers try to mop the floor due to the sheer uncleanliness in these wards, the attendants won’t allow them to mop saying that if someone sees, it will look bad on them (attendants).

However when The Sunday Leader spoke to some nursing staff at the LRH to find out as to why the wards and the toilets are not clean they said that the hospital provides the best for the patients.

“More than the facilities, we are concentrating more on the medication given to the children. First we have to look into their health and we are doing the utmost for them,” they said.

When asked whether the hospital provides all the medicine that are needed, they said that there are instances when the hospital requests the guardians to bring certain medicine from outside.

However Director, LRH, Dr. Mahanama Rajamantri was too busy to talk to us.
“I am so busy and not available at the hospital. Your paper can make an appointment and come to discuss these matters but on a later date, not right now,” Dr. Rajamantri said.