Nizamabad Government General Hospital superintendent Nageshwar Rao resigned on Monday, two days after a video surfaced showing the body of a COVID-19 victim being carried in an auto-rickshaw.
Nageshwar Rao sent his resignation to the Director of Medical Education, owning moral responsibility for the incident.
Rao told his colleagues through a voice message in the WhatsApp group of the hospital staff that he is hurt over the allegations of negligence.
The hospital chief came under criticism after four patients, including three COVID-19 patients died allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply on Friday.
The next day a video of a COVID-19 victim's body being carried in an auto-rickshaw went viral.
The hospital staff had handed over the body to the victim's relatives in total violation of the protocol for disposal of bodies of COVID-19 victims.
The body was being shifted from the Government General Hospital in the town to the graveyard. Since the ambulance was not available at the hospital, the body was carried in the three-wheeler.
Neither the auto-rickshaw driver, said to be a relative of the deceased nor the municipal employee sitting with him were wearing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits.
Nizamabad District Collector C. Narayana Reddy ordered an inquiry into the incident and dismissed the municipal employee, who was working on a contract basis.
The Collector said the relatives of the deceased were not ready to wait for the ambulance and insisted that they be allowed to carry the body in their own auto-rickshaw.
Director of Medical Education Ramesh Reddy has directed the hospital superintendent to file criminal cases against those employees who handed over the body for transporting it in the auto-rickshaw.