Long queues for hospital beds now a common sight in Chennai

CHENNAI: “My mother came here at 1 pm with oxygen saturation of 89 per cent and she did not get a bed for five hours,” said Sivaranjan, who came all the way from Tiruvallur to Stanley GH, hoping to get a bed for his Covid positive 56-year-old mother. Sivaranjan said he checked with seven government hospitals and since none of them had beds, they finally ended up at the Stanley GH.

The worrying tale of ambulances standing in long queues continues at government tertiary hospitals in Chennai as there is a lack of beds. At any given time, an average of 10 to 20 patients, with most of them in oxygen support, wait outside these hospitals to get beds.

Ramamoorthy, a 39-year-old who came along with his Covid positive wife at the Omandurar GH, said he waited for three hours and only after that his wife was taken to triage, and given a bed. “The situation is bad here. We were waiting in the ambulance and it was suffocating under the hot sun. First, after triage, they advised us to go to a Covid Care Centre but we insisted on specialty treatment as my wife already has asthma,” he said.

Many patients lose hope of going to government hospitals as they hear that the beds are full. “We got no confirmation from government helplines about available beds. So, we decided to take our 76-year-old grandfather to a private hospital,” said kin of a patient, on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, health officials say they are ramping up oxygen beds on a war footing. “We will add 250 beds to the Stanley GH. More than 2,000 oxygen concentrators will soon be distributed to government hospitals so that patients may get oxygen support till they get a bed,” said an official.

While on one side ambulances wait in queues, on the other, there is a longer queue for Covid vaccines and Remdesivir drugs. “I came as early as 9 am on Wednesday and three-and-a-half-hours later I am yet to get my vaccine,” said a 44-year-old, who had come to the Omandurar GH.

Similarly, visuals of long queues for Remdesivir at the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital were circulated on social media. Many kin of Covid patients, admitted to private hospitals, were standing under the hot sun to get the drug.