More Bodies Than Beds In Mumbai: Coronavirus Alerts- 2 Days To Go For The End Of Lockdown 4.

The city of dreams, Mumbai is overwhelmed with the patient count for the virus. Let us look at a few instances that have shocked us beyond words. 

Hospitals

1. In Mumbai’s Sion hospital, there are two people lying on a bed in the emergency ward. People who might have the virus (2 in number) are strapped to a single oxygen tank. Some people are lying on the floor.
2. Jogeshwari hospital has also been in the news for quite some time. 12 people died there in two weeks because of a lack of oxygen. The doctors are blaming the government for not having appropriate facilities regarding the oxygen supply.
3. KEM hospital has the same scenario. Patients are lying on the floor and the doctors and the medical staff are trying hard but no proper care can be given because of lack of funds. No social distancing is being followed and the wards are packed beyond capacity. 

1/5 of the total cases in our country are in Mumbai. The situation of the state is in shambles. It is said that there are corpses left unattended in hallways.  

The whole country is only looking after the Coronavirus patients and not after the people who have other illnesses. We have highlighted this previously in our articles that dying because of the virus is not a heroic move. Every disease must be given equal importance.

Instances

• In one incident, members of a family spent a night in an ambulance after various private hospitals refused to treat their mother who had fever and diabetes. The private hospital kept on redirecting the family to the government hospitals for the COVID-19 test. 
• In another incident, a patient was asked to spend the night on the floor at a state-run hospital while she was waiting for her test results because there were no weekend bags available. The family decided to finally take the patient back home.
• In Mumbai, a woman with brain damage died because she was not given medical help to the family proved to the hospital that she did not have the virus. Medical care for non-coronavirus patients has been stopped because of a lack of resources. The hospitals are open with the overall purpose of helping the citizens but by the end of the day, the beds are filled with the virus patients.

It is said that the center of the pandemic is shifting away from New York and Europe to Brazil and India where the healthcare system is not very adequate. 

Families are not claiming virus-infected bodies because they have a fear of getting infected. A new class of untouchables has been created in India which is dominated by the people who have the virus.

Doctors have said that if the situation continues, time will come when the doctors will have to make a choice between how to provide care to and who to simply say that nothing can be done for them. 

Various researchers have said that the increasing trend is not going down. The curve is not being flattened despite the government claiming it to be. Mukherjee, who is a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan has said that 2.1 million people will be affected by early July. 

Mumbai had said that they have ordered the public officials to take control of at least a hundred private hospital beds. Privatization coming together with the government is the need of the hour.

Staff

The shortage of beds is not the only thing they need to be enough staff to operate the bed. It is said that the resident doctors are receiving less time off. Medical professionals have said that they are overburdened and they are treating the patients without adequate protective gear.

Dr Adarsh Pratap Singh who is the head of the Resident Doctors Association at New Delhi said that in our country the healthcare system has never been given appropriate priority. The government is now realising the reality but it’s too late to do something. During the times of the crisis, the reality opens up. There are just too many patients coming in the hospitals and the hospitals are not prepared for it.

India just has 0.5 beds for 1000 people. This data has come out from the OECD. The private healthcare sector has been growing but no help has been provided to the government sector. Doctors are protesting in the hospital they are complaining about their own health. The health budget was raised by 6% but it is short of the government is on goal of intelligent public health spending.

Till the time adequate care is not provided to every citizen in the country, the country cannot be self-sufficient and the people will keep on dying. This is not a sign of proper governance. The number of ICU beds available with the government authorities is less. The number of patients coming in is far more than that. Private and charitable institutions are coming forward to help the government during these tough times.

Jumbo facilities have been created where there a large number of beds available. But the thing is that the number of cases is way more than the beds available in any kind of facility. Patients have to ferry from one hospital to another in order to get the proper treatment.  

The public demands answers and the public wants to see progress. Empty promises won’t get us anywhere and the situation of Mumbai needs to improve