A picture of a suspected Covid-19 patient, along with an attendant, lying on the stairs of Jammu and Kashmir’s Chest Diseases (CD) hospital triggered outrage on social media, prompting the authorities to take note.

In the heartbreaking picture, a woman is lying on her back on the stairs of the hospital while the attendant is trying to comfort her.

The duo was captured in frame by HT’s Waseem Andrabi after they were brought from Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital in an ambulance and left on the stairs. The ambulance driver sped away without caring to help them shift properly.

“Patients were disembarked from the ambulance and driver sped away, leaving them in hospital premises unattended, “ Andrabi said.

People felt outraged. “It speaks a lot how badly patients are being treated. At this time they need our heping hand not this attitude. Action should be taken against persons for negligence,” said a Srinagar resident Muzaffar Ahmad.

Head of Chest Medicine at CD Hospital, Dr Naveed Shah, said that they witnessed rush of patient today.

“9 patients were transferred from SMHS to CD hospital in one go. Could not have shifted all pts in one go to the emergency and ward especially positive ones for fear of transmission of infection. Authorities informed to shift at intervals to avoid it in future.. Matter addressed,” Shah said in a tweet.

Andrabi said that the patient was later shifted to the ward by the workers of CD Hospital.

Three Covid-19 patients died in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, taking the total number of death toll in the union territory to 16. All the deaths happened at CD hospital.

Moreover, 102 persons tested positive for the respiratory disease on Monday, 83 of them were tested at CD hospital alone. With this, the total number of cases in the Union territory rose to 1,289.