Health Minister Eatala Rajender expressed “serious concern” over the rising COVID-19 deaths but said it was also because people were reaching government healthcare facilities very late, and after self-medication. Besides, he also pointed an accusing finger at private hospitals for moving terminally-ill patients to government hospitals to escape blame for the deaths.
Rising deaths
Admitting that Gandhi Hospital and Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences have been witnessing a rise in the deaths in recent days, the Minister explained, “Private hospitals after treating patients to a certain extent and if and when condition is deteriorating are informing family members that they are running short of oxygen and lack Remdesivir injections. That is causing a rush to these two government hospitals, which are already full with COVID patients. Our doctors’ best efforts to save such patients go in vain,” he said in an exclusive interaction on Monday.
Mr. Rajendra also stated that many people after testing positive for coronavirus are self-medicating despite doctors’ advice to be cautious in using certain medicines. “The condition of such patients is suddenly turning grave and they are being rushed to tgovernment hospitals and some are even declared dead on arrival. We have to understand these prevailing conditions before criticising the lack of adequate healthcare facilities in the government sector and rise in deaths,” he maintained.
However, Mr. Rajender admitted that there was a shortage of Remdesivir injections, and said that against the requisition for four lakh vials, the Centre has been releasing around 30,000 injections every day.
“The black marketing of this much sought-after injection is being furthered by some hospitals, which have neither registered for receiving the drug nor signed an agreement. These hospitals are fleecing patients, forcing them to pay more claiming the drug is not available”, he said.
Oxygen supply
The oxygen supply is much better when compared to other places and the government has already taken steps to overcome the situation. And, in order to control the rush towards city healthcare facilities, the government had issued instructions to the districts to treat critically-ill patients at the headquarters hospitals only. “This is to avoid choking in the hospitals. Some of our hospitals have fairly decent facilities and can treat the critical patients,” he said and also pointed to the reluctance of many patients to get discharged even after they have recovered.
“We can admit more patients into hospitals if the recovered patients are discharged on time. These patients can also be shifted to COVID care isolation centres for post-discharge recovery,” he said.
The medical colleges, too, would be roped in soon to handle the rising patient load by way of providing more beds, he said.
Mr Rajender was also confident of sorting out the vaccine shortage in the next couple of days.