Bengaluru Covid-19 patient dies after 2 hospitals turn him away

A 33-year-old man with Covid-19 died early Saturday morning after being denied admission in two private hospitals in Bengaluru, despite a bed having been booked by the government’s emergency services.

The tragedy has, once again, brought to the fore the confusion pertaining to Covid bed management and the difficulty in obtaining Covid beds in private hospitals for critical patients, for whom every minute counts.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has issued a notice to the two hospitals, seeking their response within 24 hours. If no communication is received in the stipulated time, action will be taken under the National Disaster Management Act, the civic body said.

Ahmed (name changed), a father of two and a resident of Shivajinagar, had initially been admitted in Madiwala for non-Covid health problems. But he was asked to leave the hospital on April 9 after testing positive for Covid-19.

Mohammed Ismail, a member of the all-volunteer Emergency Response Team Bengaluru (ERT), said the government’s 108 emergency helpline subsequently booked a bed at Mahaveer Jain Hospital in Vasanth Nagar for the patient at 8.15 pm.

“However, when the patient arrived at the hospital 15 minutes later, he was told that the hospital did not possess any high dependency unit (HDU) beds, much less vacant ones,” Ismail said.

As per the bed management website operated by the BBMP, the Vasanth Nagar hospital has listed a total of 38 beds for government-referred Covid-19 patients, including 34 HDU beds, two ICU beds and two ICU ventilator beds. As of April 9, over 24 HDU beds and two ICU beds were displayed as being available.

Ismail claimed that the hospital also declined to provide oxygen to the patient or conduct an oxygen saturation level test on him.

Turned away second time

Although the 108 helpline blocked a second bed at Mahaveer Jain Hospital in Girinagar, medicos at this hospital also turned the patient away at about 9.50 pm, again citing non-availability of beds.

“By this time, the patient’s oxygen saturation had dropped to 25. By 10.30 pm, it plummeted to seven,” Ismail said.

The hospital eventually gave the patient 15 litres of oxygen, said Gaurav Gupta, Chief Commissioner, BBMP.

Ahmed was subsequently moved to a private hospital in Koramangala, where he died at around 4 am.

Dr Nishanth Hiremath, nodal officer at Mahaveer Jain Hospital, acknowledged that the patient had been turned away from the Vasanth Nagar branch because he said they had not been informed about the patient’s arrival by 108 helpline or the BBMP.

Gupta rejected this claim. “In any case, the rules are clear. If a patient is in critical condition, the hospital is duty-bound to admit the patient,” he said.

The hospital says a second factor in refusing admission was that Ahmed was deemed as requiring an ICU and that none were available. “At 3 pm and at 8 pm that same day, both beds were allotted to private patients,” Dr Nishanth said.

When asked why this information had not been relayed to the BBMP or 108, he added that there was no clarity on how to update bed status to the government.

Ismail alleged that the Girinagar hospital rejected Ahmed because he only had an SRF ID code and not the BU district patient ID number. “Without a BU number, they said it was difficult for them to claim reimbursement from the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST),” he said.