Government hospitals for the general public, private hospitals for politicians and their kin?

Private hospital associations have questioned politicians in the state who got themselves admitted to private hospitals for Covid-19 treatment.

The hospitals have raised questions about what they called the hypocrisy of the government saying that on the one hand they file FIRs against private hospital chiefs for not allocating 50% beds for government Covid-19 patients but on the other, “ministers are making a beeline to private hospitals when they or their family members test Covid-19 positive”.

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Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar’s daughter, wife and father, have all undergone Covid-19 treatment at Manipal Hospital. Other ministers got treatment at Columbia Asia Hospital, Aster CMI Hospital, BGS Global Hospital and Apollo Hospital. Health Minister B Sriramulu is perhaps the first minister in Karnataka and in the country to get admitted for Covid-19 treatment in a government hospital.

On Monday, Dr K Sudhakar’s office shared a video of him talking to Sriramulu over a video call where Sudhakar congratulates Sriramulu for getting himself admitted to Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital in Shivajinagar. “It is to boost the confidence of the doctors here,” says Sriramulu in reply. Dr Sudhakar did not reply to DH’s query on why his family was treated at a private hospital over a government hospital.

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Dr Ravindra Ramaiah from Suguna Hospital, president, Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA), said, “Being the head of the state health ministry, if B Sriramulu gets admitted to a government hospital, it gives a lot of confidence to the community and doctors working there. If the others had done the same thing, it would have sent the right message.

“On the one hand they are foul-mouthing private hospitals and if they still get admitted there, it doesn’t augur well for any government.”