MADURAI: Doctors at a private medical college hospital, one of the designated exclusive COVID-19 hospitals in Madurai, alleged that the hospital was delaying testing patients exhibiting symptoms for COVID-19. The reason cited by the hospital management is that if any of them tested positive for the infection, the general wards of the hospital could be shut down, the doctors told TNIE.
Several doctors alleged that the hospital management pressured doctors to operate on such patients despite their repeated requests for COVID-19 tests. “In a recent incident, a 56-year-old Madurai man, who suffered minor head injury and a forearm fracture in a road accident was referred from a KK Nagar hospital on May 4. He was referred here stating that he was a suspected COVID-19 patient as he had high fever during the two days he was at that hospital,” said a doctor. “However, he was admitted to the general corporate Intensive Care Unit (ICU), not to the COVID-19 ward,” the doctor said. According to sources at the hospital, swab samples of the patient were taken for testing on Wednesday night.
Another doctor said one of heads of COVID-19 management team dismissed request for a test for the virus after examining the patient’s chest X-ray. He alleged that the doctors treating the patient were forced operate on him forgoing COVID-19 test even as his fever continued to rise. The hospital dean declined to comment on the issue.