Govt tries to allay concerns of Covid bed shortage in Delhi

In response, the government has denied these reports and sought to calm concerns of any bed shortages in hospitals dedicated to treating the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said some hospitals may be updating data late on the app.

Patients across the city have complained of difficulties in getting admitted to Covid-designated hospitals despite the government’s Delhi Corona app displaying vacancies in these facilities.

Ajay Kumar said he took his 63-year-old father, Sudama, who had been running a fever for a few days, to a private hospital that turned him away, claiming it had no vacant Covid beds. (Hindustan Times)

In response, the government has denied these reports and sought to calm concerns of any bed shortages in hospitals dedicated to treating the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said some hospitals may be updating data late on the app.

The complaints, however, refuse to go away.

Ajay Kumar said he took his 63-year-old father, Sudama, who had been running a fever for a few days, to a private hospital that turned him away, claiming it had no vacant Covid beds.

“We then took him to a small nursing home in Mandawali, where he was admitted and tested for Covid-19. He was there for two days, but when he tested positive, the hospital asked us to leave. They said they did not treat Covid-19 patients,” said Kumar.

Sudama had to then be admitted to Lok Nayak hospital on Friday.

Ranbiri, 53, a gall bladder cancer patient undergoing treatment at the Delhi State Cancer Institute, received news that she had tested positive for Covid-19.

“They said they cannot hospitalise her now and asked us to take her somewhere else. We got really scared because if they send her to a quarantine facility, who will take care of her? She cannot even move on her own. A group of Asha workers visited her with some medical staff on Thursday and gave her some medication at home,” said her daughter Radha.

The family finally got a bed in Action Cancer Hospital, where she could be treated for both Covid-19 and cancer, after intervention by activist and lawyer Ashok Agarwal.

Delhi government data, as of Friday evening, showed that 4,601 beds across Covid hospitals remained vacant.

“The app was launched to make all data about hospital beds transparent. The information about availability of beds is being provided directly by the hospitals and it is supposed to be done on real-time basis. In case the hospital refuses a bed to any patient in spite of beds being shown available, the government can and will take action,” said the media advisor to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal

Some hospitals have also admitted asymptomatic and mild patients, which is against the Indian Council of Medical Research and Delhi government guidelines. They have been asked to discharge such patients within 24 hours. The Delhi government is “increasing hospitals beds for Covid patients every single day,” said the media advisor.

At present, over 8,500 hospital beds are earmarked for the treatment of Covid-19 in both private and government hospitals. Data from the Delhi government’s Corona app shows that government hospitals are running at 43.7% of their total capacity and private hospitals at 50.7%.

With Delhi reporting over 1,000 cases a day, several of the bigger hospitals are filling up fast – with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) running at 79% capacity, Safdarjung at 96%, and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital at 88%.

“The beds at AIIMS are filling up – there are over 700 Covid-19 patients admitted in total at both our centres as of today. However, of these only 15 or 16 need ventilator support, another 20 to 25 need oxygen support, and about 100 to 150 people need close monitoring. Generally, many people are seeking admission because of the fear of the disease and they can actually stay at home,” said Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent, AIIMS.

In the meantime, the government is working on reinforcing its facilities . A five-member committee recently set up by the government is to submit a report on how to increase and strengthen the Covid-19 health infrastructure.

Dr Arun Gupta, one of the members of the committee, said the number of beds for treatment of Covid-19 patients would increase to 9,500 “in the next couple of days.”

“There are some misleading reports that there is shortage of beds for Corona patients in Delhi because a few private hospitals are refusing admissions. The truth is, there is absolutely no shortage of beds in Delhi at the moment,” said Delhi heath minister Jain

“ In the last three days, more than 1,000 patients have been admitted to various hospitals in Delhi. If beds were not available, this would have not been possible. Even now we have close to 5,000 vacant beds. So clearly the issue is that some hospitals are not updating the data on Delhi Corona app on time or misrepresenting actual data when patients call. Patients were not getting data on hospitals before, which the Delhi corona app is trying to fix. We are making hospital bed data live and real time soon,” he said