BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Government claims that 40 pc beds in designated Covid hospitals (DCHs) are vacant but why are patients having a horrid time in getting admission to hospitals?
Across the State, patients are running from hospital to hospital be it the Government designated ones or private facilities only to be refused admission on pretext of full admission. The delay in timely treatment of the the critically ill requiring emergency care has also led to many deaths but they are not being reported as Covid deaths.
While the situation is getting worse by the day and the Government is blissful in inaction, the social media is flooded by fervent appeals and prayers by harangued Covid-19 patients and their kin seeking urgent medical care. A cursory glance at the twitter timelines of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) will point to the gravity of the situation where hapless citizens are pleading for help.
“Patients are running from hospital to hospital for beds equipped with oxygen supply,” wrote a city resident Satya Praharaj on social media. He requested the State Government to issue an advisory or single point contact so that patients can contact, enquire about bed availability and accordingly get admitted. But, no action has been taken.
Not only the DCHs like KIMS, SUM and Hi-tech which are running almost full, the top private hospitals in the Twin City are avoiding patients. Since many patients from outside the twin districts have occupied beds here, people in the twin cities are forced to knock on the doors of private hospitals for treatment.
Though it has already been a fortnight since the State Government directed the private hospitals having 30 beds or more to designate at least 50 pc general beds and 80 pc ICU beds for Covid patients, no data is available on how many beds are available in the private facilities.
Health experts opined that the Government should release hospital-wise data on availability of beds instead of district-wise so that patients can know and approach them for admission. “The Health department should share occupancy and vacancy of beds in both DCHs and private hospitals every morning. Once it is done, hospitals cannot hoodwink patients and their relatives,” said former president of OMSA Dr Nirakara Bhatta.
Going by the numbers, Khurda district, the worst-hit, has 1,552 beds in the State run DCHs for 6,040 active cases; Cuttack has 702 beds for 4,060 active cases while Puri has 98 beds for 1,748 active patients. The Health and Family Welfare department claims 350 beds in Khurda and 368 beds in Cuttack are lying vacant indicating that most of the patients are either in private hospitals or home isolation.
Similarly, of the 569 ICU beds and 195 ventilator beds in the DCHs in Khurda, 357 and 104 are occupied. In Cuttack, 168 ICU beds and 56 ventilator beds are occupied out of 278 and 73 beds respectively. So where are the beds and ICUs, if they are available? No one knows because no information is shared.
Senior health officials acknowledged that beds in private hospitals are seeing high demand but added that there are adequate resources for now.
“There is no need to worry as ICU beds are available now. A new portal has been launched and private hospitals have been asked to update the bed status in the platform regularly,” an official said.