Chennai: Elderly patient struggles in ill-equipped Covid centre

CHENNAI: A 63-year-old cancer patient, who suddenly developed breathing difficulties on Tuesday evening, had a rough time in a poorly equipped government Covid care centre.
The centre in Tambaram was not equipped with emergency support services and the patient had to wait for more than two hours for an ambulance to take him to a government hospital.
"It was distressing to see an old man struggling to breathe and doctors here saying they couldn't do much without oxygen supply equipment," said a 39-year-old Covid patient, who witnessed the incident which occurred around 7.30pm on Tuesday.
On an alert from the patient, TOI checked with local revenue officials, who said an ambulance woudl be deployed to the centre within 10 minutes. But it reached the premises only at 9.45pm. The elderly man struggled to get into the vehicle without support from staff, the patient added.
This incident happened hours after a team from Chengalpet district collectorate inspected the centre and took photos to prove that health facilities were available round-the-clock. When TOI highlighted the lack of emergency equipment in a report on Tuesday, a revenue official from Tambaram denied the same and said one ambulance with support staff was available 24/7 in all Covid care centres in Tambaram.
Despite repeated attempts, Chengalpet collector A John Louis did not comment on the current status of the patient. His subordinates attributed the delay in emergency service to miscommunication.
Besides equipment, patients also complained that the centre at Prince Shri Venkateshwara Engineering College in Ponmar with 150 patients doesn't provide medicine on time. A 54-year-old patient from Chromepet said except for kabasura kudineer (distributed on alternate days), no medicine, which are prescribed in the transfer sheet provided to them before discharge at Chengalpet Government Medical College Hospital, was given to patients. This included specific doses, vitamin supplements and zinc tablets.
"Food provided at this centre too is very bad. We are not asking for tasty home-cooked food. But they should give us something which boosts our immunity instead of making us weaker," the patient added.
Patients also complained of poor sanitary conditions at the centre. The toilets were broken and staff refused to hear our grievances, said a 37-year-old woman.
She requested a change of room as she had knee problems and couldn't use the Indian-style closet in her bathroom, but there was no response, she said. "We clean the entire premises every day and there was a lag on Monday due to staff shortage," the Tambaram official said.