KAKINADA: Covid-19 patients are in a pathetic condition as they are unable to get treatment either in government or private hospitals due to shortage of beds with oxygen supply.
After making frantic calls and doing the rounds, patients are landing at government hospitals only to learn the shocking news that no beds are available. Their distress mounts and horrific scenes are witnessed any day at these hospitals. With oxygen saturation levels dropping alarmingly, many are collapsing on hospital premises and relatives could be seen making desperate pleas to hospital staff to save them.
“My father is suffering from breathlessness and is getting treatment at Area Hospital at Ramachandrapuram. But the situation in the hospital is very grim and as per the condition of my father, the doctors advised me to admit him in GGH at Kakinada. I came to GGH by 11 am and he could not find the bed till 11 pm on Friday. It is not only my case but also many of the patients waiting for the beds. At last, fortunately, after seeing our pathetic condition, a staff nurse of a ward provided a bed with great difficulty,’’ said A.J. Kumar.
He said he made requests for beds to hospitals concerned after reading info on dashboards on beds vacancy position. But when contacted, the hospitals said they did not have any beds to spare.
A relative of a patient, Sravan Kumar, said that he contacted the ‘104’ call centre to get hospital admission. The personnel who answered the call asked him to wait, so they can put him through to the doctors or officials concerned. “I waited nearly half-an-hour, but there was no response from the call centre. What can we do in such a situation?’’ he questioned.
East Godavari District Collector D. Muralidhar Reddy said that 3,500 positive cases on average were being recorded daily. Around 30,000 patients are undergoing treatment in hospitals. All steps were being taken to provide better treatment to them.
The Collector said that 50 beds would be available from Monday at ESI Hospital. He said senior officials were inspecting private hospitals which should provide 50 per cent of beds to Aarogyasri patients. He said the ‘104’ call centre was getting around 1,500 calls a day and it would be expanded. He said that call centres would be set up at the divisional level also.
