Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former party president K. Laxman on Wednesday said he would write to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to send a delegation of medical experts to address the ‘mismanagement’ of COVID-19 pandemic spread in view of the spike in cases and also deaths here in the last few days.
Mr. Laxman also demanded that the TS government include coronavirus treatment into Arogyasri health insurance scheme so that the poor can take treatment from private hospitals considering the lamentable condition at Gandhi Hospital. He, along with MLC/city president N. Ramchander Rao and other leaders, will seek to meet Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragathi Bhavan on Friday (June 12) to present a memorandum on the issue.
“We will seek an explanation about the current state of affairs where the main COVID-19 Gandhi Hospital is hamstrung with infrastructure deficiencies. Why is the government reluctant to test more people and why it is preventing private labs and hospitals from testing even after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had issued licenses?” he asked.
Talking to the media through a digital press conference, the BJP leader said the government’s claims of being prepared for more cases has proved to be hollow considering the recent incidents in Gandhi Hospital where ICU is full and there are insufficient ventilators and personal protection kits for healthcare workers.
“The brother of a deceased journalist, who was also taking treatment, charged that medicare is not up to the mark and there was much delay in moving the patient into ICU and providing timely ventilator support. What happened to the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) at Gachibowli?,” he wondered.
Reeling out figures, Mr. Laxman said Telangana is showing highest number of mortalities when compared to other States while testing has been the lowest. When compared to AP with 1.5% death rate (79 casualties), the death rate here is 3.8% (148 casualties). Recovery rate here is 44% whereas in AP it is 55%. TS has done 628 tests for one million while AP has done 9,000 tests for one million population. About 15,000 tests can be done daily through the 28 accredited labs and 16 private hospitals but only 500 are being allowed.
“This only exposes the negligent, irresponsible and arrogant attitude of the government in tackling COVID-19. It does not want to listen to even the High Court or follow the ICMR guidelines even as the citizens are cowering in fear,” added the BJP leader