Ambulances with patients wait outside Chennai hospitals

Dozens of ambulances wait outside RGGGH and SMCH with patients inside

R Babu, 36, arrived at one of the designated Covid-19 hospitals run by the Tamil Nadu government in Chennai in an ambulance at 3 am on Thursday with his father who tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Seven hours later, at 11 am, Babu was still waiting for authorities at the Government Omandurar Covid Hospital to allot a bed for his father.

The 36-year-old, who was tending to his father, was not lucky enough to get an oxygen bed at a make-shift camp set up by CREDAI at the Omandurar Hospital. “I was given Out Patient slip and I was told to wait. It has been over seven hours and I still don't know how long I have to wait. Meanwhile, my father is on oxygen support in the ambulance,” he told DH.

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Babu was not alone. At least 10 ambulances with Covid-19 patients were parked at various locations in the hospital premises. This is the case not just in the aforementioned hospital but across all medical facilities in the state capital as the medical infrastructure is under severe stress due to rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.

Dozens of ambulances wait outside the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) and Stanley Medical College Hospital (SMCH) with patients inside the vehicles. Sitting next to her husband who is on oxygen support at the waiting hall at SMCH, 42-year-old Pushpa said it took over eight hours for her to get her husband to the hospital premises from the ambulance that brought them from a suburb.

“We are being called one by one. Since my husband's oxygen levels are low, he has been put on oxygen support. I don't know how long we have to wait for him to get a bed in the hospital. Hopefully, he is given a bed in few hours,” she said.

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Though the government had augmented beds during the first wave of Covid-19 and is still adding them in hundreds, the waiting time for a bed at government hospitals that did well in the past one year is increasing each passing hour. ICU beds in both private and government hospitals in Chennai, and Coimbatore, are full, while the vacant oxygen beds are almost nil. The situation is no better in other cities like Salem, Madurai, and Tirunelveli where hospitals are overflowing.

“Every hospital in Chennai is overflowing, and their parking areas are flooded with ambulance vans. The government should augment more beds at existing hospitals, and create more such facilities at colleges and other places were they have enough space. Moreover, the government should focus on primary health care centres where people are screened initially,” Venkatesh, a volunteer involved in Covid-19 efforts, told DH.

Officials said the government was working to reduce the waiting time by augmenting beds in almost all facilities run by it. They said private hospitals have also been asked to increase the number of Covid-19 beds.

The new DMK government which assumed office on May 7 has announced it will add 12,500 oxygen beds in the next few days, while deciding to float a global tender for procuring vaccines for those between 18-44 years of age.