Hours after the daughter and wife of a person infected with COVID-19, admitted at Delhi government-run hospital, sought help in a video posted on social media stating that he was suffering from high fever and the hospital was not taking care of him, the government stepped in to provide help.
In a video posted on Monday, the family appealed to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help them.
“After admission at Lok Nayak Hospital on April 18, he was not given food till next afternoon. He is a patient of diabetes and hypertension,” the patient’s daughter said in the video posted on Twitter. She said that they got a call from her father at 5 a.m. where he complained that he had high fever and could not even stand, and that the hospital was not taking care of him.
“Please help us. If Mr. Kejriwal or PM Modi are seeing this, please acknowledge. What is shown on the news and the ground reality is very different. We are ready to take him to a private hospital, but they are saying that there are no guidelines for it,” the patient’s daughter and wife said in the video as they broke down in tears.
After the video went viral, the Delhi government swung into action. “If you can share ward details of the patient, I will ensure that he gets proper care,” AAP MLA Dilip Pandey replied to the video.
“He got food and medicines. Treatment has started,” said the daughter in a video posted in the evening. “He has been shifted to a separate room. The doctors said that he will be kept under supervision,” she added.
A Delhi Health Department official said that an infected patient can choose to be admitted in a government or private hospital.
“We have different facilities. At every COVID Testing Centre we have two wards: confirmed and suspected. Once a case is confirmed, then he is sent to a COVID Care Centre, COVID Health Centre or to a hospital, in increasing order of severity of the case,” the official said. “If we are referring him to a hospital, then the person can pick a government or private hospital. If the person picks a government hospital, then he cannot pick a specific one. We will assign according to availability of beds,” the official added.
