Sweltering public hospitals turn into ‘death traps’ for poor communities

Overcrowded public hospitals in India face heat-related illnesses, highlighting systemic failures in healthcare infrastructure and climate change impact.

Come with me to a busy outpatient clinic at a public hospital in rural Andhra Pradesh. There is a sea of waiting patients. Some are on chairs, most on the floor, waiting to be called in by the doctor. People on the floor talk, eat, and some even nap as they wait. Oppressive heat, along with the smell and feel of sweat, pervade the atmosphere.

In a small consultation room two doctors attend to a patient. In the corner, another doctor treats a patient. Outside the door stand a multitude of patients. Every now and then someone peeks in and asks, “Doctor, when will my turn come?”

Looking around, we notice there are no windows. An old fan rattles overhead, recirculating the same overheated air. While the doctors can take breaks in their air-conditioned duty room, patients have no such respite.

A similar stifling environment is replicated in many places across the country, as Mr. Joseph can testify.

“I accompanied my relative to his appointment at the B. Baruah cancer centre in Guwahati,” says Mr Joseph (name changed). “The hospital waiting room was overcrowded and extremely humid because everybody there was sweating. Soon enough, I started having a headache and muscle cramps. My temperature rose too. I had to go out to a different clinic to consult a doctor and they diagnosed me with heat exhaustion. I was admitted and given paracetamol along with saline injections. Only after some time did I feel better,” he adds.  

India’s public health infrastructure is crumbling under the sheer volume of sick people and this might have unintended consequences for people in the current heatwave India is experiencing. 

This year, India is experiencing its longest and deadliest heatwave in the past 15 years with some parts of North India hitting record-high temperatures. This heat wave disproportionately affects the poor and marginalised communities who have no access to cooling devices. While several forms of inequalities have been exposed by the current heatwave – such as occupational inequality and gender inequality, it is also important to talk about how economically-weaker sections of the community who seek healthcare from the public sector are exposed to heat-related illnesses within the premises of these clinics and hospitals.