Covid patients from neighbouring states travel miles for treatment in Delhi

On Thursday, Delhi added 2,737 new infections and 19 fresh deaths, taking the total number of positive cases so far to 1,82,306 and its fatality count to 4,500.

Om Prakash did not want to risk it any more at the private hospital in his hometown in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly.

The number of patients occupying hospital beds too has increased to 4,477 as on Thursday as compared to 2,973 on August 3. (ANI photo)

It had been three days that his brother, Sushant Kumar, had been admitted to the hospital and his condition was deteriorating daily.

Kumar was admitted to the private hospital in Bareilly after testing positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. But he soon developed pneumonia. “We found the treatment provided there to be inadequate. We also worried that if his condition turned worse, the hospital would not be able to manage his condition,” said Prakash.

On Saturday morning, Prakash decided to put his brother in a car and take him to Max Hospital in Saket,Delhi. He called the hospital and was told that an ICU bed was available.

“I didn’t want to waste time waiting for an ambulance, so I simply loaded my brother in my car and drove off to Delhi,” said Prakash.

It took Prakash about five hours of non-stop driving to cover the 270 kms to reach Delhi. They didn’t stop for meals, scared that the patient might infect someone on the way. “Kumar spoke little along the way and mostly spent the journey sleeping, but thankfully he held on,” said Prakash.

However, when they reached Delhi in the afternoon on Saturday, they were in for a rude surprise. “At Max Hospital, we were told that the vacant ICU bed had been occupied,” said Prakash.

The next few hours were spent looking for another private hospital in Delhi-NCR with a free ICU bed . “Finally, we found an ICU bed at a private hospital in Noida, but we didn’t like the facilities. It felt like we had travelled all this way for nothing,” he said.

They were mulling their next course of action when they got a call from Max Hospital answering their prayers. An ICU bed there had been vacated minutes earlier.

Sushant, who is a chief pharmacist at a government hospital in Bareilly, is yet to recover. But Prakash now is confident of the treatment being given to his brother . “The Covid-19 situation is bad in UP, but we kept reading that it is under control in Delhi. We were more likely to find an ICU bed and receive better treatment in Delhi than in UP,” Prakash said.

The siblings are not the only people from other states choosing private hospitals for ICU care -- doctors of many private Covid-designated hospitals attributed their nearly full occupancy of ICU beds to this emerging trend of patients opting for hospitals in the national capital.

Delhi has been witnessing a spike in Covid cases after a lull over nearly eight weeks. On Thursday, Delhi added 2,737 new infections and 19 fresh deaths, taking the total number of positive cases so far to 1,82,306 and its fatality count to 4,500. The number of patients occupying hospital beds too has increased to 4,477 as on Thursday as compared to 2,973 on August 3.

At Max hospital, Saket, another patient, Gaurav Aggarwal, has been in the Covid-19 ICU ward for the last one week. His family had driven him in their car from Meerut to Delhi the moment they received his Covid-19 report last week. As they made the three-hour journey, in Delhi his brother Saurav had confirmed an ICU bed at Max Hospital.

“The facilities are good at the hospitals in Meerut as well. But nothing can match Delhi. Moreover, I stay in Delhi and can personally monitor whether he is receiving the kind of attention he needs,” said Gaurav’s brother, Saurav. On Thursday, Gaurav received plasma therapy at the hospital.

But both the patients were lucky to find ICU beds in the city’s top private hospitals. As of 9.16 am on Thursday, the Delhi Government’s ‘Delhi Corona’ app showed that none of the 32 ICU beds equipped with ventilators at Max hospital, Saket, was vacant.

The story is similar at other private Covid-designated hospitals in Delhi as well.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had in June this year raked up a storm by announcing by announcing that beds in the city’s private hospitals and in hospitals run by the state government will be reserved for residents of Delhi until the Covid-19 pandemic subsides. The order, which created much furore, was later struck down by Delhi L-G Anil Baijal.

According to doctors at Max Saket and Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, their ICU beds reserved for Covid patients are completely occupied — mostly by patients belonging to other states.

“Eighty per cent of our ICU beds are occupied by patients from other states, such as Uttar Pradesh and even Bihar. While the non-serious patients don’t mind staying back in their home states, those whose conditions worsen prefer to come to Delhi hospitals if they can afford it,” said Dr Nevin Kishore, head of the bronchology department at Max Saket.

Dr Rajesh Chawla, senior consultant of respiratory medicine at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital said that patients in other states are opting for Delhi hospitals because they “are not happy with the treatment they receive there”.

“There are not enough private hospitals in some of these states and patients are being forced to seek admission in government hospitals, which lack the necessary medicines or care. About 40% of our ICU patients are from other states such as UP and Madhya Pradesh,” said Dr Chawla, adding that all ICU beds at Indraprastha Apollo hospital were occupied on Thursday.

Relatives of patients had varied reason seeking treatment in Delhi. But they all agreed on one thing — the facilities in Delhi were better.

At Tughlaqabad’s Batra Hospital, where all 15 ICU beds were occupied at 4.31 pm on Thursday, Ghaziabad-resident Ruchi Pathak sat in the lawn with her mother and sister-in-law, while her 41-year-old brother remained admitted in the ICU inside.

Pathak said that the family chose Delhi over Ghaziabad or any other UP city because they had been reading about Covid cases reducing in Delhi and the availability of beds here.

“Our experience in Ghaziabad was not good . When my brother fell sick a week ago and we took him to a private doctor, a Covid test was not recommended by the doctor. His fever subsided in a couple of days, but he again developed a cough. This time when we took him to a private hospital, the doctors recommended home quarantine with oxygen support, but not a Covid test. When his pulse began to drop, we got him tested for Covid and when the result returned positive, we decided to take him to Delhi,” said Pathak.

The family did not want to get Tripathi admitted to GTB Hospital where ICU beds are available, due to lack of facilities. Their next choice, after a long hunt, was Batra Hospital.

“We first called two private hospitals in Delhi, but both said that their ICU beds were occupied. Then my brother’s employer (he works at a finance firm) made a request to Batra Hospital authorities and procured a bed here,” said Pathak.

When her brother was admitted to the hospital on Thursday morning, it appeared that he had made it just in the nick of time. “When another patient arrived immediately after us, the hospital had to refuse them admission as my brother had occupied the last bed,” said Pathak.

The only pleasant experience, her mother said, was finding an ambulance in Ghaziabad. “We had an ambulance at our door within five minutes of making a call,” she said.

One of the expectations of this family was that it would be easier for the patient to receive plasma therapy if need be. He has been reporting low pulse and is on a ventilator. “We have already found a plasma donor,” said Pathak’s mother on Thursday afternoon, adding that all the members of the family who accompanied the patient will be tested for Covid.

The situation is not very different at government hospitals either. Dr Suresh Kumar, director of Lok Nayak Hospital, said that 20% of all Covid admissions at this Delhi government hospital were from other states, mainly UP and Punjab.

“The state borders opening have also contributed to this factor,” said Dr Kumar.