Guntakal: A woman was forced to drag her paralytic husband on the ramp of the government hospital here as she was denited a stretcher to carry the patient.

One Srinivasa Chary, 45, suffering from symptoms of gastroenteritis was brought to the hospital by his wife, Sree Vani, 40. The staff there bluntly told her that they did not have stretchers. Left with no option, the woman dragged Chary from the ground floor to the first floor of the hospital even as other patients and attendants watched on.

Chary and Vani, residents of Madina Masjid area in the town, came in a rickshaw. Vani asked the hospital staff to provide her a stretcher or a wheel chair so that she could carry her husband to the consultation room on the first floor.

"I told them that I will push the stretcher. But, the staff did not provide the stretcher," Vani said adding that she was forced to drag her husband on the hospital ramp after waiting for an hour in vain.

Chary has been paralysed after he suffered a stroke some time back. He used to work as a security guard in Hyderabad.

After the news was carried in the media, hospital administration and the district authorities inquired into the incident on Thursday suspended the staff nurse Vimala. The in-charge superintendent Hariprasad was also removed from the responsibility and replaced by Dr. Ganganna.