Majority of Covid-19 patients in Bengaluru dying at private hospitals

A majority of Covid-19 deaths in Bengaluru are increasingly taking place in private hospitals, an analysis of the official data has revealed.

Over the last 10 days, for example, there have been 350 Covid-19 deaths in the city, out of which 67% (or 235 deaths) have happened in private hospitals.

While activists and some government officials blamed poor service being rendered by private establishments, the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) attributed the increased percentage deaths to the larger numbers of Covid-19 patients enrolled in private healthcare.

According to official data, there are currently 8,110 Covid-19 patients admitted on the government quota across 90 private hospitals in the city as of September 1, and an additional 6,319 people admitted under the same quota across eight private medical colleges in the city. These 14,429 people comprise 38% of the city’s 37,703 active cases. Figures for people admitted under the private quota are not known, but are said to include a large number.

However, an authoritative government source said this tells only part of the story. “In many private hospitals, doctors are not treating patients properly. Those doctors over the age of 50 actually refuse to render medical aid to Covid-19 patients in person. Instead, they have only ward boys and attendants go into Covid-19 wards to administer medication. In government hospitals, this is not so as there are certain SOPs to be followed,” the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Medical mafia

Abdul Wajid, BBMP opposition party leader, said the civic body and the state government had failed to handle and control Covid-19 in the city.

According to the BBMP’s own bed management system, 37% of all government Covid-19 beds are vacant, why then are officials referring them to private hospitals, he asked. “It seems like officials are in hand in glove with private hospitals. One side people end up paying lakhs to private hospitals and also losing lives,” he said.

He alleged that an officer had told him about kickback schemes in which government officials were being paid Rs 10,000 by private hospitals for referring asymptomatic Covid-19 individuals into private hospitals for a stay of 10 days.

“Asymptomatic patients do not belong in hospitals, but they will be made to pay and the officer paid off. This is beyond a medical mafia,” Wajid said.

Some staff unqualified

Dr R Ravindra, president, PHANA, said several hospitals operating on a small scale did not have qualified personnel to treat Covid-19 patients.

“In fact, by appealing to the government, we managed to get 84 small hospitals, which could not treat Covid-19 patients, released from Covid duties. The ratio between qualified staff per patient is larger than it needs to be,” he said.