Hospitals have no beds, allege Chembur and Govandi residents

Despite Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) claims of setting up thousands of beds in its facilities, the situation on the ground highlights a cruel reality.

Despite Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) claims of setting up thousands of beds in its facilities, the situation on the ground highlights a cruel reality. Many patients have been turned away by civic hospitals and some have even lost lives during their struggle to find a bed.

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A family from Chembur said that they visited five hospitals to get their kin admitted as she had clear symptoms of Covid-19, however, no hospital agreed to admit her. Later, she succumbed to the infection. “I never felt so helpless. I did when I could not save my mother. I was ready to put in all money from my savings, but no hospital was ready to admit her,” said Shyam Alhat, a resident of Gaikwad Nagar in Chembur.

He said, “My 62-year-old mother had a recurring fever since May 1 and we visited three municipal hospitals and two private hospitals. I stood in the queues for four to five hours in every hospital with my ailing mother and all of them just gave medicines and sent us home. She died at home after four days. She could have been saved,”

Meanwhile, BMC’s data states that the city has over 35,000 bed capacity in its Covid Care Centre -2 (CCC-2) facilities and over 24,000 bed capacity in its CCC1 facilities. While a CCC-2 is meant for quarantining mild symptomatic and asymptomatic Covid-19 positive patients, CCC1 is for high-risk contacts and those awaiting test results. Apart from this, there are 475 ICU beds and nearly 4200 beds in dedicated Covid hospitals.

In another similar incident, a 38-year-old patient from Govandi could not find a bed for four days and was turned away from every BMC hospital he approached. Deepak Parchapa, brother of the deceased, said, “My elder brother suddenly developed Covid symptoms and we rushed him to Rajawadi hospital on May 3. The medical staff informed us that there were no beds. We went to Sion Hospital and then to Kasturba. There they asked us to visit Sir JJ Hospital. We moved from one hospital to the other for two days while my brother’s health condition worsened.”

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said, “Majority of the beds of Covid patients are full. However, we are continuously scaling up the bed capacity. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) today handed over 1,200 bed facility set up at BKC. Also, an online dashboard for bed availability for public is being discussed and a proper management of beds will be executed in the coming days.”

Even as BMC claims to have set up various facilities and scaled up the total bed capacity, local representatives say that there is a lack of management in place to accommodate these patients in the hospital. Abhijeet Samant, BJP corporator from Andheri, said, “Almost every day we come across cases where citizens are unable to find a bed for days. Unless we make calls to the ward office or hospital’s medical staff, the patient is not admitted.”

Samant added that the helpline where people can inquire for beds does not work at all. He said, “It is complete chaos on the ground.”

Pointing out the mismanagement of hospital beds in the city, Maharashtra leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis tweeted, “I am constantly getting calls from relatives of patients in Mumbai telling me that how they are not getting admission in any of the hospitals and have to run from pillar to post.” Fadnavis urged the state government to create a dashboard for bed availability and put it up in the public domain.

He further said in the tweet, “I request the State Government to create a dashboard for bed availability and put it in the public domain so that everyone knows in which hospital should they go for admission and treatment based on the availability of beds.”