Police personnel were deployed inside the wards to regulate relatives of patients and visitors.

In 24 hours the Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital at Gorakhpur underwent a makeover, ahead of the visit of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, along with Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda.

Police personnel deployed inside the sprawling campus of the hospital on Saturday were stationed even inside the wards on Sunday to regulate relatives of patients and visitors.

The narrow corridor connecting the “100-bed encephalitis ward” with the canteen in the middle of the hospital was sprinkled with bleaching powder and four colourful dustbins were put in a row. At the glass door of the ward some young policemen and women were on their toes and not allowing anyone to go inside.

At one far corner of the corridor Baby Kumari of Chauri-Chaura was in tears as she was not allowed to see her son Sangam Kumar inside the ward. On the intervention of The Hindu the woman was allowed in.

The tiled floors and walls had been washed; the gurneys and trolleys to carry sick patients neatly arranged in a row; the ill-lit places lit up; the smell of urine and stale food filling the air had vanished and plastic bags of patients’ relatives scattered all over had been removed.

The encephalitis ward at the BRD medical college hospital in Gorakhpur. | Photo Credit: Amarnath Tewary

Even the canteen area, where one plate of food is available for ₹15 for patients’ relatives, was in order. The army of stray dogs had been chased away and the milling caretakers of the patients not to be seen.

The doctors appeared extra attentive, the nurses running from one bed to another and the ward boys, wearing plastic caps and rubber gloves, were busy ensuring that everything looked neat and clean. “CM saheb aa rahe hain, sir…kuch bhi gad-bad hua to sidhe napa jayenge (CM is coming, sir…if anything goes wrong, dismissal will follow next)”, said a ward boy.

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At one bed in the encephalitis ward two-three nurses were seen attending to the children, with doctors giving them necessary instructions from the prescriptions. “Where were all these amenities a day back? It seems we’ve come to some big private hospital today,” grandfather of a child admitted in the ward told The Hindu.

However, death of children continued. Bhikhari Yadav of Bhatni in U.P. came out of the ward with the body of his four-year-old son Sumit Kumar in his arms. Seeing it his wife broke down.