The scramble for beds, particularly those with the oxygen and ventilator facilities both in the government and private hospitals, for the treatment of coronavirus infected persons goes on unabated in Hyderabad, irrespective of the statistics being doled by the government for public consumption every day.
A senior journalist having good contacts in the corridors of power had to run from the pillar to post about 10 days back to get himself admitted to a hospital after testing positive for Covid-19. His plea for allotment of a bed was turned by several corporate hospitals and with the intervention of those in power he was admitted to a super speciality hospital in the public sector.
The other day, another person had to struggle hard to get his brother admitted to a private/corporate hospital for Covid treatment, in spite of having good liaison in the circles of power. The trauma being faced by the lesser mortals for getting their kin or themselves admitted to hospitals for Covid treatment is endless.
The instances of Covid patients being referred to Hyderabad from districts breathing last waiting outside the hospitals for getting a bed allotted are also on the rise, although sparsely for now.
On the other hand, Minister for Health Eatela Rajender said there is no scarcity of beds at least for now in spite of the influx of patients from the neighbouring States to the private hospitals here. The web link provided by the State Government for the real-time information on the Covid hospital bed status indicated that 25,805 beds were available in the government and private hospitals in the State as at 1.04 pm on April 23.
According to online information, the availability of ICU (ventilator/CPAP) beds was 990 in government hospitals and 2,761 in private hospitals. Similarly, the availability of oxygen beds was 3,466 and 3,833, respectively and that of regular beds was 4,443 and 10,312.
On the ongoing vaccination drive in the State, a government bulletin said a total of 36,02,734 doses of vaccine was administered to healthcare workers, frontline workers and the priority group of those aged above 45 years till 9 pm on April 22 from the beginning including over 2.11 lakh doses on April 22.
