Poor non-Covid patients have no access to govt healthcare: Docs

BENGALURU : The resident doctors’ association of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) on Sunday issued a statement noting that the poor were unable to access tertiary care for non-Covid treatment in Bengaluru, as the government has converted speciality government hospitals into exclusive centres for Covid-19 treatment. 

The move has forced the poor non-Covid patients to avail treatment in private hospitals at unaffordable cost, they stated while advocating that separate Covid care centres be set up with beds, oxygen, ventilators and healthcare professionals.

“The best tertiary care centres like Victoria  and Bowring hospitals were robbed from their capacities to provide speciality care to poor non-Covid patients,” they wrote, adding that even after three months had passed this year, no decision was taken on shifting Covid patients elsewhere, while also leading to  wastage of hospital resources and skills of specialist doctors.

They also stated that non-Covid patients who come to these two hospitals have modest monthly incomes, and considering the lockdowns, some were even out of jobs, making private healthcare beyond their reach. They questioned the government on the measures being taken to build or strengthen Covid Care Centres with necessary equipment or the required number of health workers in the last one year. 

The government’s plan is still to admit all Covid patients in tertiary care centres like Victoria and Bowring hospitals, they wrote, in the light of the second Covid wave having begun in Karnataka.In 2019, Victoria Hospital treated around 70,000 out-patients and around 4,000 in-patients every month.

Approximately, 1,500 major operations and 3,000 minor operations are successfully performed here every month, which constitutes to around 3,000 out-patients per day, and approximately 8,40,000 outpatients per year. Around 70,000 non-Covid patients per month can be treated at Victoria and Bowring hospitals, they said.