Delayed info on bed count worries Covid patients, kin

CHENNAI: With not many beds up for grabs at government hospitals, the only resort left is to check for some in private facilities. However, the official website stopcoronatn.in has not been updating the private-hospital-bed dashboard regularly. Kin of Covid patients, who have been scrambling for beds, say the ‘improper’ information on the portal is only delaying the admission process. Some have even lost their loved ones trying to find beds.

In a few situations, though the dashboard displays that beds are available, the reality is different. Patients are being denied beds citing unavailability and some hospitals do not even update the information for many days. According to Vaishnavi Jayakumar, a member of Chennai Cares, only 28 of the total 182 private hospitals in Chennai updated their bed status on May 3.

“Most of the listed hospitals do not answer calls. The information must be updated every two hours but most hospitals have not updated the data in many days,” she said. On the other hand, even if information is being updated daily, there are no contact details. In cases where contact details are available, there is a gap in communication between the person updating the information and the actual scenario.

“I saw oxygen bed availability in three hospitals and kept calling them to save my 80-year-old father whose levels were dropping. After a zillion calls, a hospital picked up to tell they did not have beds. This was when the dashboard showed five available beds. He passed away in six hours,” said R Vaijayanthi, breaking into tears.

In another case, L Priyanka’s mother was denied bed even after she informed them that the patient was critical. “A private hospital in Villivakkam confirmed bed availability and asked for CT reports. They immediately denied us bed citing her critical status. It looked like they did not want to admit any patient with high chances of mortality.”

Additionally, most calls to the helpline number 104 get just one reply “There are no beds available.”
Only 100 out of the 181 private hospitals updated bed availability details on Tuesday. Of these, 62 have declared zero availability across all categories.

‘Streamlining soon’
When contacted, a senior official from the Directorate of Public Health said, “Soon, this dashboard will be merged with the other one –tncovidbeds – after which the updation will be streamlined