Patients run from pillar to post as city hospitals packed to the rafters

With beds running out fast, people are increasingly taking to social media to seek help with finding space in hospitals.

With the number of daily infections nearing the 20,000 mark, Delhi is facing an acute crisis of hospital beds, with several health care facilities, including dedicated Covid facilities, now turning patients away for lack of space, a Hindustan Times spot check on Friday showed.

A burial ground for Covid-19 victims in Delhi. (AFP)

Covid-19 hospitalisations crossed the 10,000-mark for the first time on Thursday. As on Friday evening, of the total 16,426 beds, 12,087 were occupied. Of the total 3,976 ICU beds, 3,501 were occupied, according to the Delhi Corona app at 5pm.

With beds running out fast, people are increasingly taking to social media to seek help with finding space in hospitals.

On Friday evening, when HT called 11 big hospitals – both government and private -- three times each to check for the availability of beds, most of the calls went unanswered. Only four of the 33 calls were answered with all of them replying -- “no beds available at the moment”.

Safdarjung hospital was the only one among the six government hospitals contacted that answered the call. The person on the other end said: “There are no beds available. We are not making any waiting lists; we just do not have any beds.” According to the government app, the hospital had no ICU beds and 79 ward beds available at the time.

As per the Delhi government app, there were 739 ward beds and only 12 ICU beds available in the hospital at the time. (Hindustan Times)

Only three private hospitals answered the call — Max Hospital in Saket, Fortis in Vasant Kunj, and Sir Ganga Ram hospital. Telephone operators at both Max and Fortis hospitals said that there were no beds available, and disconnected before any other further inquiry could be made.

There were just two beds and no ICU beds available at Max Saketm and no ward or ICU beds available at Fortis-Vasant Kunj, according to the Corona app.

At Sir Ganga Ram hospital, the operator said, “We do not have any ICU beds. The ward beds might become available as we discharge more non-Covid patients.” On enquiring when the bed might become available, HT was told that it will happen next morning when the next lot of patients are discharged.

According to the Corona app, there were six ward beds and two ICU beds available in Ganga Ram hospital at the time.

It was not immediately clear how quickly the app is updated by hospital staff to reflect the actual situation.

Managements of Max hospitals and Sir Ganga Ram refused to comment. A representative for Fortis could not be reached.

A doctor from one of the private hospitals, on condition of anonymity said, “We do not have beds, what can we do. We have to turn away patients. We do not even know where to refer them to; it is not like there are hospitals in the city that have free beds.”

In a meeting with senior health officials on Friday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal directed that the helpline numbers on the Delhi Corona app remain functional round-the-clock, according to a government release. “There should be multiple assistance numbers in the hospitals and nodal persons should be appointed at every helpline number. No urgent calls should be missed and turned down,” Kejriwal said.

At the meeting, the CM also directed officials to ensure that hospital’s update information on beds availability regularly on the state government’s Delhi Corona portal.

Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director of Lok Nayak hospital on Friday evening said, “We have 700 ward beds and 150 ICU beds. The situation is still manageable; the hospital was completely full in November. But more beds will become full with increase in the number of fresh cases.” As per the figures provided by him, only two of the available ICU beds had ventilator with the rest only providing oxygen support to the patients.

As per the Delhi government app, there were 739 ward beds and only 12 ICU beds available in the hospital at the time.

A doctor who works in the hospital ICU said, “The number of patients that we are receiving currently is two to three times of what we had seen in November. The hospital is already full.”

Another doctor at Lok Nayak hospital said, “We have 1,500 beds. However, there is no infrastructure support, machines, and staff to run several of these beds. In addition, many of the healthcare workers in the hospital have started testing positive again. So, we cannot admit as many patients.”