Desperate for help, patients dial police for oxygen, hospital beds

Police said while much of these duties are beyond their purview, they are expecting such requests to mount in the coming weeks.

From arranging beds and oxygen for Covid-19 patients to sending patients to hospitals and the dead to crematoriums, Delhi Police has been handling a multitude of requests from across the city over the past few days. Police sources say the tasks they are performing now are vastly different from a year ago, when they only had to arrange meals and masks, apart from their regular duties.

While social media sites are the primary go-to option for most people seeking medical help, the police say they too are being bombarded with calls for help. (File Photo. Representative image)

In less than a week, police have arranged oxygen for a critically short outer Delhi hospital, sent the antiviral drug Remdesivir to patients in other states, turned a public park into a hospital for an ailing woman and rushed an elderly patient to hospital in the absence of any relative, among others.

Police said while much of these duties are beyond their purview, they are expecting such requests to mount in the coming weeks. “People believe that the police can help them in times of need. We are working hard to do whatever we can to save lives and ease the troubles of patients,” said Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (north Delhi).

While social media sites are the primary go-to option for most people seeking medical help, the police say they too are being bombarded with calls for help.

“Several requests for hospital beds, oxygen and medicines are being received by police stations. My office too received about 15 different kinds of requests for medical help on Sunday. We are tying up with hospitals and individuals to help as many people as we can,” said RP Meena, DCP (south-east).

One task successfully executed by Meena’s team was to arrange Remdesivir for a critically ill patient in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.

In central Delhi’s Rajender Nagar, the police on Sunday had to shift an 80-year-old infected man from his home to hospital after his daughter called them for help. “The daughter couldn’t tend to her father since he was infected. So, we stepped in,” said Jasmeet Singh, DCP (central). As it turned out, the elderly man had put up a notice outside his house asking that his body be handed over to the police in case he died.

DCP Singh said several individuals and organisations working to help people with oxygen and hospital beds are aware that victims in distress often reach out to police. “So, these people are approaching us with their willingness to help and we are the bridge between them and patients,” said Singh.

Otherwise, at their level and within the department, it is the chowki (police post) in-charges and personnel deployed at hospitals who are being approached for liaising when requests for help pour in, said Santosh Meena, DCP (north).

On Sunday, his colleagues in Dwarka had to step in after a family couldn’t find a vehicle to move their loved one’s body -- he had died of Covid-- to the crematorium. On Sunday, Meena received about 10 requests for help with hospitals and medicines.

The police are also catering to a lot of requests for plasma. “Since many personnel got infected and recovered, relatives of patients believe that we are in a position to help. My colleagues who are eligible to donate plasma are doing so when we receive requests,” said a police officer, who asked not to be named.

More than 8,000 Delhi Police personnel have been infected so far and 35 of them have died. But nearly 90% of them have also received the first dose of the vaccine.