Nellore: Lack of real time info on hospital beds costs lives

Nellore: Even though the district administration is saying that there are huge number of beds available in the Covid hospital and Care Centers to those, who tested positive, but the reality is a different ball game. Majority of people are facing a tough time to get a bed and they are now relying on politicos for the recommendation.

In fact, officials say that there are around 5,000 beds available in the district headquarters that include more than 300 beds with ICU facility and around 225 ventilators. But the recent incident of a headmaster from Manubole mandal, who died due to Covid raised eyebrows of the people where he suffered a lot to get a bed in the Covid hospital. Sarvepalli MLA K Govardhan Reddy reportedly recommended to the authorities for allocating a bed. He was diabetic and had been ailing with some kidney-related issues and was tested positive. The video went viral that he was requesting the administration to allocate him a bed as his condition was deteriorating.

Freshly, a person from Podalakur town also tested positive when he was suffering from pneumonia and he tried to join the Government General Hospital and Narayana General Hospitals. They roamed around for seven hours in the city and finally they contacted the MLA Govardhan Reddy, who instantly arranged a bed in Narayana Hospitals.

Further, there are many private hospitals in the city and the district administration has announced that they would also provide Covid treatment. As a matter of fact, they are allocating any beds to the people without any recommendation displaying 'no vacancy'. In case, they provide treatment to a person with good insurance it will be beneficial to them. So, they are not accepting treatment under Aarogyasri and any other welfare schemes.

"This is not correct that beds are being allocated instantly as soon as the victims approach the hospitals. Most of the people are not tech-savvy to register their beds in hospitals. They visit the hospital and request the authorities for allocation which is now being denied majority times," said a relative of a patient, maintaining anonymity. But the district officials saying they are allocating beds within 15-20 minutes depending on the merits of the case. Further, an electronic media conducted a sting operation four days ago and it also proved two private hospitals denied admissions saying they had to start the activity.