A day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a mobile app “Delhi Corona” on which people can check hospital-wise beds and ventilators available for COVID-19 patients, there was multiple mismatches in the data on the app and the ground reality.
The app showed that 33 “COVID-19 beds” were vacant in the Central government-run Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, however, the hospital spokesperson said that no beds were available on Wednesday.
Beds unavailable
Similarly, the app showed that all 80 beds were vacant in Max Super Speciality Hospital in Patparganj, but no beds were available, according to the hospital spokesperson.
Also, the app showed that there were total 232 beds in another Max Hospital and 46 of them were vacant. “We have only 200 beds in Max Saket for COVID-19 and only five of them are free,” a hospital official said.
When contacted, data of GTB Hospital, Max Hospital Shalimar Bagh, AIIMS Jhajjar, and AIIMS Delhi matched the data on the app with minor changes.
“My brother has severe COVID symptoms. We contacted Max, Apollo and Gangaram — all three said no beds. But your website shows they have beds. Please look into this - @ArvindKejriwal@AnkitLal @msisodia what’s going on?” Vikas Pandey posted on Twitter from his verified account.
Delhi BJP president Adesh Kumar Gupta alleged the Delhi government had been “continuously lying” about its shortcomings and mismanagement in the health sector and from time to time and had now come up with a new lie.
Even during the COVID-19 epidemic, he alleged, the Kejriwal government had “increased the pain” of the people of Delhi by first “lying” about death statistics, then testing and now the availability of beds in hospitals.
The Delhi Congress has alleged that the AAP government is not being transparent about figures related to COVID-19 cases in the Capital and pointed out that there were discrepancies in the information released in the health bulletin. “According to the government’s app, 80 beds were free at the Max Hospital Patparganj but when I went there with a patient last night, all the beds were full. Mr. Kerjiwal is telling lies and hiding the true picture,” alleged Delhi Congress chief Ch. Anil Kumar.
Senior Congress leaded Ajay Maken also pointed out how there was no clear information being shared by the Delhi government.
When contacted the Delhi government spokesperson said, “The information about the bed status comes from the hospital itself. If any of the hospital claims otherwise to any patient, we will take action immediately. It is a new initiative and there are bound to be teething issues which we will resolve soon. This will be an extremely useful tool for all citizens. Over the next few days we are aiming to provide real time information to everyone.”