Telangana: HC reserves judgement on plea over shifting of mentally ill from Sanga Reddy Hospital

Hyderabad: In response to the petition filed for shifting (NGO's) mentally ill patients from Sanga Reddy Hospital to Erragadda hospital, the Telangana High Court Justice A Abhishek Reddy has reserved its verdict in this regard.

The petition was filed by Advocate M Manohar of Integrated New Life Society for Education and Development (INSED), an NGO working for the mentally ill destitute, those who roam on the roads without clothes, food, or shelter mental condition. The NGO takes care of their health checkups and food needs.

It came to the fore that the NGO has been using the Sanga Reddy hospital's space to treat mentally ill patients. However, the NGO has been asked by the state government to empty the area since the hospital is about to be upgraded.

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Manohar said to the court that " we kept around 57 mentally ill orphan patients at the hospital for treatment and now we have been asked to remove the patients. We need a dedicated space to run an exclusive mental health facility."

Advocate General BS Prasad said "The state would be shifting all of them to the state-run mental health facility at Erragadda. The state government wants to upgrade the Sanga Reddy district hospital into a full-fledged government medical college and hospital."

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The DME also claimed that the NGO had not registered with the state's mental health authority and lacked basic mental health centre amenities. 

According to P Padma Rao, counsel for the petitioner, the mentally ill patients at Sanga Reddy would suffer if they are relocated to Erragadda hospital due to the lack of space at the facility, TOI reports. 

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