Representative Photo
Manvender Vashist/PTI

BHOPAL: The medical services of small districts have gone downhill because of the rising number of corona cases. There are 18 districts where the number of cases is more than 1,000. Because of the mounting corona patients, the health system in the districts is staggering. Besides Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur, the condition of seven districts is worsening with each passing day.

The number of cases has crossed 1,000 in Ujjain, Ratlam, Sagar, Rewa, Khargon, Vidisha, Betul, Rewa, Narsinghpur, Balaghat, Katni, Raisen, Rajgarh and Shahapur. In these small districts, the health services count on district hospital and nursing homes.

The patients are not getting treatment because of the sudden rise in number of cases in these districts.

Patients are coming from the cities and villages of these districts. Nevertheless, there are many who have not been tested.

Such patients are not on records. Because of the rising number of patients, beds in hospitals, as well as other medical facilities, are not available in these districts.

There is also a lack of facilities in the districts where medical colleges were set up.

The local doctors advise the patients to go to Bhopal or to Indore for treatment. Those who are seriously ill are moving from one place to another to save their lives. Residents of the districts where doctors are not available are left to the mercy of God.

Former minister Sukhdev Panse says the condition of patients in Betul has worsened. According to him, the coronavirus is consuming more than 100 lives every day, but the government is hiding the figures of death. Panse says beds, oxygen and ventilators are not available, as the hospitals are not being given funds for buying medicine and equipment.

A doctor in a district hospital says there is a lack of resources and he and his staff are treating patients risking their own lives.