High tension at AP-TS border as police stop ambulances with COVID patients
Vijayawada: High tension prevailed on the inter-state border as Telangana state police refused entry to ambulances from Andhra Pradesh carrying Covid-19 patients to hospitals in Hyderabad, starting Sunday night. Only those with beds booked in Hyderabad hospitals were allowed to proceed.
The Telangana state government is learnt to have issued directions to the police to not allow ambulances carrying infected patients from AP to cross the border and reach Hyderabad for medical treatment. Accordingly, from 8 pm on Sunday, the police along the borders started stopping all ambulances from AP seeking entry to TS.
Source said that the Telangana state government was aware that infected patients who are critically ill in AP are opting to reach Hyderabad for better medical care in top corporate hospitals. However, those among them who fail to get a bed allocation in Hyderabad hospitals are moving from one hospital to another seeking admission and finally lose their lives.
The Telangana government is not ready to accept blame for this, and hence blocked such incursions via the border to the state, TS reasoned.
The Telangana police stopped nearly 30 ambulances from AP heading for Hyderabad at the Ramapuram Crossroad checkpost at Kodada mandal on Monday, and turned away patients who failed to produce proof or phone numbers relating to booking of beds in any Hyderabad hospital.
A local police officer said, “We are not asking for any letter from hospitals. We are asking for at least a telephone number of a doctor or a hospital in Hyderabad in their possession to confirm the availability of bed. If the hospital confirms it can admit the patient, we allow them to proceed. The patient can also show any message about confirmation of bed availability in a hospital in Hyderabad on their phones. Else, we tell them to go back. We have no issue with other vehicles coming in from AP to Telangana.”
