An 85-year-old Covid-19 patient admitted in Sanjay Nagar Hospital, a secondary hospital, in Ghaziabad died soon after he was shifted from a tertiary hospital in Meerut on Tuesday, which, according to Uttar Pradesh health minister, was done on the request of the man’s family.
The Ghaziabad health department officials said that the patient, a native of Pilkhuwa, was admitted last week to Meerut Medical College after he tested positive for the disease. He also suffered other health complications like diabetes and high blood pressure.
“It came as a surprise to us that a Covid-19 patient was shifted to the lower category L2 hospital in Ghaziabad, which is for patients having moderate complications. The L3 (tertiary) hospital is meant for critical care. After he was admitted here, he succumbed within four hours of his stay. Generally, a patient is shifted to another hospital base on a doctor’s advice,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer. “It is only when a patient is stable that we recommend shifting him/her to a lower level hospital. After the patient arrived to Ghaziabad we had to admit him otherwise it would have stoked criticism. But he did not survive. His last rites were performed with due precautions in Ghaziabad and the patient will not be added to the Covid-19 count in Ghaziabad.”
The officials did not disclose personal details of the patient so his family could not be reached for comments.
{{/usCountry}}The officials did not disclose personal details of the patient so his family could not be reached for comments.
{{/usCountry}}The family had also approached Uttar Pradesh health minister Atul Garg, also an MLA from Ghaziabad.
“His family made repeated request to me to make him shift to Ghaziabad,” said Garg. “They believed he was not getting proper treatment at Meerut. The doctors at Meerut also did not object (to the movement). So, I helped them and it was on my request that he was discharged from Meerut.The family also sent a message of thanks to me. Patient’s condition was not such that he was required to be put on ventilator.”
The Meerut hospital said it would not comment on the patient’s health.
“The patient had gone to Ghaziabad on insistence of his family. Putting allegations is very easy but I will not comment anything on this. Till the time he was here we tried our best and provided him the best treatment,” said Dr TS Arya, its medical superintendent.
Doctors at the Ghaziabad hospital said the patient’s lungs were affected.
“He was admitted at around 4.30 pm on Monday and he succumbed around 8.45pm. Besides his health complications, his lungs were also affected. About six of our staff who attended to him will now remain in active quarantine for 15 days,” said Dr Naresh Vij, hospital’s chief medical superintendent.
To deal with Covid-19 cases, the UP government has created a three-tier structure of dedicated Covid hospitals.
The L1 category hospitals deal with normal Covid-19 positive patients while L2 hospitals are meant for patients having moderate complications. The L3 hospitals are meant for patients requiring critical care.
The Uttar Pradesh government had approved an L# hospital in Ghaziabad, but is yet to be operational.Critical Covid patients from Ghaziabad are referred to L3 hospital at Meerut.
On Tuesday, two more Covid-19 positive cases were reported from Jhandapur locality in Sahibabad and took the tally to 143 cases.
“One of the two is a 20-year-old woman who was under treatment at a hospital in Mohan Nagar. The other is a 42 year old security guard who worked at a factory in Sahibabad. After the factory officials got employees randomly tested, the guard turned positive,” CMO Dr Gupta said.
In another direction, the district administration on Tuesday said that required permissions for opening of industrial units, constructions sites, cab/taxi services, etc. will no longer be required.
“These activities were earlier permitted and permissions had to be applied for with the respective department or administration. Now, the industrial unit owners, construction sites, standalone shops/commercial establishments and private offices will have to make self declaration on www.ghaziabad.nic.in while the cab/taxi services can operate without any permission or any self declaration. However, the operations are not allowed out of hotspot/containment zones,” said a district administration spokesperson.