The shortage of beds for COVID-19 patients continues to plague Bengaluru. Even as health Minister Dr K. Sudhakar has been assuring that ramping up of health infrastructure has been a top priority of the government, the ground realities tell a different tale.
On Saturday, former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who tested COVID-19 positive was in for a rude shock, when the Manipal Hospital turned down his request for admission citing shortage of beds.
According to JDS leaders, Kumaraswamy, who had been campaigning for the bypolls in Basava Kalyan returned to Bengaluru on Friday night, and as he was feeling exhausted, he chose to stay back at a hotel instead of going home. On Saturday morning, Kumaraswamy tested positive for COVID-19. He intended to isolate himself at his farm house. But the doctors advised him to get hospitalised immediately. But Kumaraswamy failed to get admitted to the Manipal hospital as they expressed their inability to allot him a bed due to shortage of beds. Later, he was admitted to Sagar Hospital on Bannerghatta Road.
"If influential persons like Kumaraswamy are finding it difficult to find a bed, what will be the plight of the common man, " said JDS MLC H. M. Ramesh Gowda.
Interestingly, the health minister, who learnt about the former chief minister's ordeal tried to get him a bed, but in vain. Even as the state reported 14,859 new cases on Friday and 78 deaths, taking the total number of active cases to 1,07,315, the government is grappling with the private sector to ramp up the beds.
According to the health minister, around 1,000 beds in the government medical colleges and government hospitals and 5,000 beds in private medical colleges are reserved for COVID-19 patients. With the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases leading to increased demand for beds, Dr Sudhakar appealed to the hospitals to only admit patients needing critical care.
"Almost 95 per cent of the infected persons are either asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms in this second wave. Only 5 per cent of COVID-19 patients need hospitalisation. So, I urge that only those people with severe symptoms must approach hospitals for treatment. We have instructed the private hospitals to vacate the non-Covid patients who do not need hospitalisation to free up beds for COVID-19 patients. We have asked them to admit only those who need critical care and open quarantine centres in collaboration with hotels for asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients," the minister said.
