Scenes Of Despair As Covid Patients' Families Scramble For Beds In Indore

Ambulances with patients lining up outside hospitals, desperate relatives running from pillar to post in search for a bed were among the scenes of despair witnessed in Indore as the medical services in the city have been struggling to cope with the sharp surge in the number of COVID-19 cases.

"We need a bed. It's an emergency. They say there are ten other emergencies. There is one person at the counter. There should be five people to man the counter given that this is a pandemic situation. One person is handling 50 patients. It is taking half an hour to get a doctor. They are asking for Aadhaar card and so many other documents, not treating my father," said the relative of a patient.

Another patient's relatives were seen pleading for oxygen for him. His wife was screaming for help even as the patient breathed his last outside the hospital.

The relatives alleged that they waited for hours but the hospital was busy doing the formalities.

"There is no bed available. I went from one hospital to the other, there are no beds. We returned home at 5 AM. Even now we couldn't get a bed. We are here but nobody is paying any attention," said one of his relatives.

Two COVID-19 patients had died in an ambulance outside the Super Specialty Hospital in Indore on Friday. Their relatives have alleged that their cries for medical aid fell on deaf ears.

The authorities, however, claimed the patients were already dead when they were brought to the hospital.

"We have been told they were brought dead, in that case we can't do much, that's why we have been saying they should take consent before coming here about availability of beds," said Dr Sanjay Dixit, Dean of MGM Medical College.

State's Medical Education minister, Vishwas Sarang, has assured that there is no problem related to beds or medical supplies.

"This is not in our knowledge, it's a matter of investigation. It will be investigated but I can assure you there is no problem related to beds, medicines or oxygen supply," he said.

Madhya Pradesh is among the top ten states that account for more than 84 per cent of the daily cases, according to the Health Ministry.

The state reported 4,986 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the state's biggest single-day spike, which pushed its infection count to 3,32,206, said an official. Over 4,000 people have died due to the virus in the state.

Indore, which has been reporting the highest number of cases in the state, added 912 cases to it's infection tally in the last 24 hours. There are more than 7,000 active patients in the city.