The coronavirus pandemic has brought to fore the reality of our health infrastructure and tall promises made by the government, every now and then. Even the Kejriwal govt. in the capital, which had garnered praise for its healthcare infrastructure seems to be struggling with the rising number of cases.
Social media is flooded with stories about the lack of availability of beds in hospitals or proper treatment, or testing for that matter.
A couple of weeks ago, ScoopWhoop Unscripted, brought the stories of some of these people while reporting outside one of the biggest hospitals in Delhi, LNJP.
The Unscripted team spent a day outside the hospital reporting the harrowing reality on the ground.
Speaking to anchor Samdish Bhatia, one of the people whose mother had been admitted to the hospital had said that he had seen 5 people die right in front of him. He also spoke of the hospitals not following proper social distancing measure and stuffing 8 people in one ambulance, along with relatives.
Many relatives of patients who had not even been allowed to speak to the patients spoke about their ordeal, relaying their concerns that the hospital wasn’t even letting them know if their loved ones were even alive.
When this man got tired of waiting on the hospital authorities for information about his father and asked the guard as a last resort, he was told that he had passed away.
Another man who lost his father told Samdish that his father was even not provided oxygen or ventilator in his last hours, despite other patients begging the authorities to do so.
Just days after this episode of ScoopWhoop Unscripted aired, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a video call facility for patients admitted at said hospital to facilitate them talking to their families.
Kejriwal informed the hospital authorities that the state govt. had installed tablets in coronavirus wards and at a counter outside to help them make video calls.
Just last week, Kejriwal said that they will be setting up ICU beds on a large scale at three state-run hospitals in wake of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the national capital.
He also said that coronavirus patients under home isolation have been given pulse oximeters, adding that the government has gotten permission to conduct plasma therapy on 200 patients in the city.
While these steps will certainly save some lives, Delhi still had 85,161 confirmed cases in the state at the time of filing this report.