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Systemic bed shortage continues to hurt critically ill Covid-19 patients in Bengaluru
Akhil Kadidal
DHNS
Last Updated IST
Representative image. Credit: iStock
Representative image. Credit: iStock

A 70-year-old man whose oxygen saturation plummeted on Thursday was unable to find an ICU bed in any of the city hospitals, highlighting the systemic bed shortage.

The shortage persists despite the BBMP booking cases against 10 hospitals that failed to provide the obligated beds for Covid patients.

The patient, Shafiq (name changed), a resident of LR Bande, was rushed to a local clinic on the morning of October 7 after vomiting blood and suffering a steep plunge in oxygen saturation.

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However, the clinic recommended hospitalisation. “What followed was a nightmare. No hospital was willing to admit him because he was critical,” said his son, Shoaib (name changed).

The patient could not get tested for Covid for 19 hours. Only at 6 am on October 8, he was tested positive for the infection at Baptist Hospital.

“The news was shocking because he did not have the classic symptoms of the disease such as fever, cough, or loss of smell or taste,” said Shoaib. He added that they had chalked up the vomiting to his father’s excessive drinking following the passing away of his mother on September 24.

“In all, I took my father to seven hospitals in an ambulance from LR Bande to Gandhinagar but was turned away by all. A further 10 to 11 hospitals were called on the phone without a positive result. Inquiries were made in person at a further seven hospitals by other family members, again without a bed being secured,” he added.

Finally, at 11.30 am, Shafiq was temporarily admitted to emergency services at St John’s Hospital, where a second test confirmed that he was Covid positive.

The family said the BBMP called to triage the patient. Shoaib alleged that the Palike said it would take two days to find a bed. In the interim, the family secured a bed at a private hospital because they said they could not wait.

Mystery of missing beds

Officials acknowledged that there is a delay before critical care beds are found for patients. “The problem is that the number of beds kept vacant for the government ends up being mysteriously filled when a patient needs to be allocated under the government quota,” one official said. DH verified this.

DH does a fact check

According to government data, as of 8 pm on Sunday, there were 143 of 893 ICU or ICUV government-quota beds available within 118 private hospitals or private medical colleges across the city.

However, when DH called up several hospitals, which the system showed as having free beds, they said the beds were not available.

IAS officer Tushar Girinath, in-charge of the transport of Covid-19 patients, said the government was facing a challenge in getting an accurate accounting of bed numbers from private hospitals.

“We had deployed a system whereby hospitals could report their beds, but they did not use this facility. We are calling hospitals in the morning to obtain vacancy numbers, but this is imperfect. We are currently developing a system to monitor government-quota beds in real-time," he said.

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(Published 13 October 2020, 01:19 IST)