A resident of Old Delhi took to Facebook on Sunday to detail the harrowing experience involved in arranging a bed and an ambulance for her uncle who had tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.
Describing her experience, Saima Furqan, a Unani doctor, questioned the government’s way of handling the COVID-19 crisis.
“Exactly at 10:30 AM [on Saturday] I started contacting the big names [hospitals] in the city [sic],” Ms. Furqan wrote. “The first one to be contacted was Max Saket who refused admission due to unavailability of beds. This was followed by ringing all designated private hospitals in the city. The BL Kapoor, the St. Stephens who appeared to be designated only on paper. They are not even admitting COVID-19 positive patients. My colleague tried the other big names like Artemis, Fortis but all in vain. Ultimately we decided to give a last try to Ganga Ram Hospital. Thankfully with the support from another colleague doctor who has some known person in the administration, we were able to get a bed reserved for my patient [sic],” the post also read.
While reserving a bed had taken half of the day, it was 2 p.m. when she started trying to arrange a COVID-19 designated ambulance, she wrote. “I and my other colleagues initiated the process of calling the ambulance at the ambulance emergency number which could not be connected, one number after the other. The Delhi police, the state helpline, the national helpline, the private ambulance service providers, the DSO, the SSO, the central ministry and so on... We tried every single number and 100s of calls. We used all possible sources and all possible measures [sic],” Ms. Fuqran said.
When she reached out to the police, she said they were allegedly “more interested in knowing whether my patient had any contact with Tablighis or I intentionally did not report the case to the authorities. The DSO was informed exactly the moment we received the report but even until today nobody from the govt came to sanitise the house and test the family members [sic],” she wrote. It was only after three hours, when her uncle’s condition had reportedly already deteriorated, that the ambulance arrived and he was taken to a hospital.
In light of her experience, she wrote, “I was blessed with some of the best sources, so I was able to admit my patient but what about those who neither have the source nor the money? Just when I was completing the billing formalities, I saw people being refused admissions even though they had money in hand...[sic]”
