It is almost impossible for a common man to get himself tested and get a bed in private hospitals designated as Covid-19 hospitals.
New Delhi: Seeking testing and a hospital bed for suspected and confirmed Covid-19 patients has become an uphill task in the national capital.
An exhaustive investigation—carried out by The Sunday Guardian after readers reached out to this newspaper sharing their ordeal— revealed that it was almost impossible for a common man to get himself tested and get a bed in private hospitals which have been designated as Covid-19 hospitals.
Hospitals
On Friday, The Sunday Guardian contacted at least 12 private hospitals spread across Delhi to look for a bed for a Covid positive patient. All these 12 hospitals are part of the 74 private hospitals listed by the Delhi government on their recently launched mobile application “Delhi Corona” to help a distressed person locate the hospital nearest to him/her that has empty beds for Covid-19 patients.
These 12 hospitals were randomly selected. The B.L. Kapur Memorial hospital located at Rajendra Place in Central Delhi was the first hospital that The Sunday Guardian contacted on Friday morning to seek a bed for a Covid-19 positive patient, but the hospital’s admission department denied having any available beds for Covid-19 patients in the hospital at the time. The Admission department official at BL Kapur hospital told these correspondents, “Sir, at present there are no Covid beds available in the hospital as all of them are occupied. We have noted down your details, will contact you when we have any.”
On the contrary, the Delhi government’s ‘Corona Delhi’ was on Friday morning showing, at the time The Sunday Guardian was speaking to the officials at BL Kapur, that all the 93 beds in the hospital for Covid-19 patients were vacant. Then, The Sunday Guardian contacted the Delhi Heart and Lung Institute located in Central Delhi, enquiring for a bed on an urgent basis for a Covid-19 patient.
The hospital’s staff in a response to the query said that currently the hospital is still in the process of organising beds for Covid patients and that the area is still not ready. “We are in the process of creating a separate ward for Covid patients. We are still working on it. Contact us on Sunday and hopefully by then, we would be ready to take in patients. As of now we cannot help you,” the Reception staff told this correspondent.
However, the Delhi government’s “Corona Delhi” application on Friday morning was showing that all the 20 beds earmarked for Covid-19 positive patients were available in the hospital.
The Primus Super Specialty Hospital is located in Central Delhi’s posh Chanakyapuri diplomatic area and is supposed to have 24 dedicated beds for Covid-19 patients. However, they told The Sunday Guardian that they are still in the process of creating the infrastructure for Covid-19 patients. “At present, there are no beds available for Covid-19 patients with us. We are in the process of making it functional. A few beds that are there now are all occupied. Give us some time, we will be ready,” the admission department told this correspondent.
While again, the Delhi government’s corona beds application, at that time, was showing that all the 24 beds earmarked for Covid-19 positive patients were free and available.
Big hospitals like Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket, as well as Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in Sukhdev Vihar in South Delhi also had no beds available with them, despite showing the availability of beds in the Delhi government’s corona beds applications for Delhi.
Officials at the Max Hospital, Saket, clearly denied having any bed available for Covid-19 patients on Friday, while Fortis hospital told The Sunday Guardian that they will get back after finding details of availability of beds in the hospital. Fortis at the time of the call was showing all 32 beds vacant. Despite taking down all relevant information and contact details, Fortis hospital never called back till the time of going to press.
Even at Gangaram hospital, recently converted by the Delhi government to a dedicated Covid-19 hospital, it proved difficult to secure a bed for Covid-19 patient.
When these correspondents contacted Gangaram’s Kolmet hospital for Covid beds and Covid testing in the hospital, they were asked to contact the fever and flu clinic set up by the hospital for Covid-related cases. However, despite repeatedly trying to get through the flu clinic’s number to enquire about the same, the calls either went unanswered or were engaged.
The Sunday Guardian team was finally able to find a hospital bed for Covid-19 patient in the Maharaja Agrasen Hospital in Punjabi Bagh, West Delhi. However, the admission department staff categorically informed this newspaper that the patient’s family first needs to deposit Rs 2 lakh in cash before the hospital could admit the patient.
When told that the patient has a health insurance, the staff of the hospital said, “That is okay, but we need a cash deposit of Rs 2 lakh before admission. It will be later adjusted with your insurance upon getting an approval from the insurance company.”
Even smaller hospitals in Delhi that have been asked by the Delhi government to dedicate separate beds for Covid patients have been denying admissions to these patients citing non-availability of beds, though Delhi government’s application for corona beds in Delhi shows ample beds available in these hospitals.
The Sunday Guardian contacted the Batra Hospital in Mehrauli’s Tughlakabad Institutional Area at least thrice on Friday. However, each time, the admission department transferred the call to a person looking after Covid-19 cases. The call was, however, disconnected as soon as the person on the other side heard that it was regarding a Covid bed.
Similarly, the admission department at the Khetrapal Hospital in West Delhi’s Rajouri Garden was clueless about the availability of any bed for Covid-19 patients. The hospital staff told this newspaper that the “nodal officer’ looking after Covid-19 cases is busy and would call back if there are any beds available.
However, according to the Delhi government’s corona bed application, both these hospitals together have 35 vacant beds for corona positive patients at the time this paper called up the hospitals.
Covid-19 testing
Testing for Covid-19 has become another ordeal in the national capital with most of the private players shutting their doors on testing after the Delhi government pulled up many private laboratories for testing asymptomatic patients.
The Sunday Guardian contacted Dr Lal Path labs in Patel Nagar, seeking to carry out a Covid-19 test. In his response, the official at Patel Nagar’s Dr Lal Path Labs told this paper that Dr Lal Path Labs has discontinued testing for Covid-19 in Delhi about a month back.
This newspaper also contacted several other laboratories for testing of Covid-19, but none gave a positive response.Max Hospital laboratory in Saket did not even respond to repeated calls made to the pathology department for Covid-19 sample collection, while officials from the SRL diagnostics laboratory told this newspaper that they are not doing any tests in Delhi.
“Tests for Covid have been stopped in Delhi. We are not doing any more tests, the ‘senior’ authorities have told us not to do. The kits are not available. It will take some time for the situation to normalise,” an official from SRL diagnostics told this newspaper.
Dr Dang’s Laboratory in Punjab Bagh, when contacted for Covid-19 test, said that there are no slots available with them till next Wednesday and that the patient will have to make a booking online with all medical documents after which they will receive a call from the laboratory for details about testing.
The response was also similar from Dr P. Bhasin Path Lab in Greater Kailash in south Delhi. The receptionist at the Lab said, “You first need to send all the relevant medical documents with doctor’s prescription and Aadhaar card; we will review them and accordingly, if approved, we will send you a payment link after which a slot, whenever available, would be given to you.”
The Sunday Guardian also tried contacting several other private laboratories in Delhi carrying out Covid-19 tests, but none responded positively till the time of the story going to press.
Distress posts narrating ordeal on social media
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with distress posts by relatives and friends of Covid-19 patients trying to seek help from any possible authority to find a bed or a testing centre in Delhi for their ill relatives and friends.
On the last week of May, The Sunday Guardian reached out to a patient having Covid-19 after his friend had put out a post on Twitter crying for help. Amit, a resident of West Patel Nagar, had tested positive for Covid and had been struggling to get a test done for his family members.
The Sunday Guardian had spoken to him on 25 May. He then said, “I had tested positive and I live with my parents who are old. My mother and wife are also showing symptoms; I have been calling the Delhi government helpline, but they are just saying that they will come. They had not yet come, it’s been two days.”
This correspondent had then reached out to AAP MLA and spokesperson Raghav Chaddha on 25 May, seeking help for Amit and his family to be tested. However, on 26 May when The Sunday Guardian had last spoken to Amit, he had said that till then, he or his family had neither received any help nor any phone call from the Delhi government to enquire about them.
The Sunday Guardian again tried to contact Amit on 5 June, but all calls to his number went unanswered.
However, Amit’s friend had put out a tweet on 27 May, saying that they are still waiting for help and the family is going through a difficult time. Another resident of Rohini, Varun Vats, had also put out his ordeal on social media, seeking attention from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Delhi government after being turned away from every hospital he visited seeking a Covid-19 test.
Varun Vats was advised by the doctor to get a Covid-19 test after he developed symptoms of coronavirus on 2 June. However, according to Varun, when he visited several hospitals in and around Rohini, including the government’s Ambedkar hospital, he was turned away for two consecutive days. On 4 June, Varun had put out a post on twitter and Facebook narrating his ordeal.
The Sunday Guardian had also reached out to the Health Minister Satyendra Jain on 4 June after seeing Varun’s post, and Jain assured us that he would look into the matter.
Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Varun said, “I had received several calls since Friday morning from the Health Minister’s office and I was finally helped by local AAP volunteers, who took me to the Khosla hospital in Rohini and I got myself tested. I am waiting for the result and I am currently self-isolating myself.”
There have been several others like Varun who are taking to social media for seeking help. Mukul Saxena, another resident of Delhi, took to twitter to narrate the ordeal he has been facing with testing and hospitalisation of his aged mother. In his tweet, Mukul wrote, “Dear all, it’s a cry for help. My senior citizen mother is unwell with fever and Covid symptoms. She is too weak to head out for test; need consistent oxygen that I can only provide at home. 011 2230 2441/7135/7145 ; none of them are working. There is no way to book at test at home and yesterday, I took her to several hospitals where there were no testing kits and private hospitals like Max, Apollo would not give her admission without a positive test. Her situation is deteriorating and she cannot be kept in an isolation ward anymore and needs treatment immediately.”
In another incident, a 26-year-old boy lost his life because his family could not find a Covid bed for him. Salman Sulemani was taken to AIIMS Rishikesh from Delhi for his treatment, but he succumbed to the virus on 4 June. Parents of Salman allege that they were turned away from hospitals like Max, Batra and RML hospitals.
Delhi, on Friday evening, had over 24,000 confirmed cases with over 600 deaths.