Karnataka COVID patients admitted at govt hospitals allege negligence, demand to return home

Several messages and videos exposing the plight of patients and COVID wards have gone viral which show the worsening conditions in the COVID designated hospitals.
Representational image (Photo | PTI)
Representational image (Photo | PTI)

BELAGAVI: Fearing the worsening conditions of the COVID wards in the government hospitals, several COVID patients are desperate to return home in a bid to save their lives. 

Several messages and videos exposing the plight of patients and COVID wards have gone viral which show the worsening conditions in the COVID designated hospitals.

A day after a 65-year-old patient died writhing in pain naked on the floor at BIMS COVID ward, several messages were abuzz on social networking sites with requests from patients seeking help to shift back home.

A young resident of Athani tweeted on Saturday saying "I was admitted to BIMS yesterday. Given the miserable condition of the COVID ward here, I am sure to get infected by various other diseases. Please shift me to Athani". The COVID patient says he will become vulnerable to other diseases if he continued to stay at BIMS.

Another 65-year-old patient with comorbidities from Belagavi city who died on Thursday had asked for his own "attender" at the COVID ward.

For almost a week, his wife attended the COVID positive person, whose condition was extremely critical until he died. The woman still awaits her COVID-19 test results.

Her family members said, had the hospital and the healthcare staff taken care of the coronavirus patient, the woman wouldn't have to attend her husband.

Another message widely circulated on social media said, "my cousin (non-COVID) is asked to take care of her Covid19 relative at the COVID ward in BIMS. He is asked to inject insulin to the COVID patient who is a diabetic as the nurses will not be able to help check blood or sugar levels of the patient. They (staff) say they don't have a facility to test sugar levels. They say, there are 100 patients in the ward and that they can't take care of all of them. You have to help the patient to the washroom, food, etc."

The messages about the vulnerability of COVID patients in the designated hospitals has shocked people living in containment zones in Belagavi, where the Covid19 cases have drastically surged in the last few days.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, Director of BIMS, Vinay Dastikop said, the hospital had enough staff to attend to all the COVID patients. "We have never asked any of the patients to get their own attenders. The attenders are needed only in the case of paediatric patients. The positive patients are attended effectively in the hospital," he added.

Deputy Commissioner M G Hiremath said, to streamline healthcare facilities for Covid19 patients, COVID Care Centres had been set up in 10 taluks of Belagavi where asymptomatic positive patients would be admitted. The positive patients in critical condition who needed regular care and treatment only were being shifted to BIMS, he added. According to him, facilities to house COVID patients also were made in Belagavi's KLE Hospital and ESI Hospital.

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