Delhi's Sick Shiver on Streets: AIIMS, Safdarjung Patients Face Brutal Cold

• Thousands of patients and their families are forced to sleep on streets outside major Delhi hospitals like AIIMS, Safdarjung, RML, and Lady Hardinge in severe cold.
• Despite official claims of bed availability, rest houses are full, and patients cannot afford accommodation or return home due to long appointment dates.
• Center for Holistic Development (CHD) surveyed, finding approximately 7892 people, mostly patients/families, sleeping in the open, especially near AIIMS and Safdarjung.
• CHD Executive Director Sunil Kumar Aledia urged Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda to provide temporary shelters, blankets, clean water, and toilets.
• The dire conditions pose severe health risks like hypothermia and respiratory diseases, with over 3,500 cold-related deaths in Delhi from 2019-2023.

Why It Matters: Delhi's top hospitals neglect thousands of patients forced to freeze on streets, demanding urgent humanitarian aid.