“I was looking for a bed for a friend’s 50-year-old father who is critical. Despite calling 22 hospitals, we could not find any bed for him. A private hospital in Porur where we landed with the patient asked us to go back without even referring to any other hospital, as there were no beds available,” said Manikandan, a resident of Ramapuram.

This is not a rare case. Many have complained of being denied admissions after approaching hospitals after checking the bed availability dashboard. This has raised questions about discrepancies in the data.

“After calling more than 15 private hospitals based on dashboard availability for ICU beds or ventilator for my uncle who has several comorbidities, a private hospital in Villivakkam that had two ventilator beds available as per the dashboard responded. However, they denied beds saying that they will admit the patient only after we send them CT reports, as the patients with comorbidities are likely to take longer to recover and there are higher chances of mortality,” said J Abhishek, a resident of Mogappair.

Authorities at government hospitals said that the beds there were going unoccupied despite vacancy, and patients only land in critical stage from private hospitals when chances of recovery plummets.

“There is delay in treatment as the patients go around private hospitals looking for beds and delay reaching government hospitals. Very often, there are patients who are made to wait in private hospitals and then referred to government hospitals,” said Dr E Theranirajan, dean, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.

When contacted, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said private hospitals have been asked to reserve 50 per cent beds for COVID patients and also postpone elective surgeries, which would free up more beds. “Patients should not run behind private hospitals, but instead choose government hospitals that provide proper treatment,” he added.