As Delhi looks for beds, MCDS say their 8 hospitals available
Documents with the SDMC showed that the said hospital did not have any beds equipped with oxygen support and ventilators, nor did it have any ICU beds. An official in the hospital, however, said the equipment is to be provided by the Delhi government. A senior Delhi government official said that whenever government takes over any hospital in such a crisis, it arranges for resources required at the facility.
A top official in the north corporation said, “Civic bodies have not been able to open up their health infrastructure for Covid patients because of our poor financial situation. It is so bad that we have not been able to pay salaries to our health care workers and teachers, who distribute rations in schools,” the official said, asking to stay anonymous.
“We have inadequate equipment. Five of the eight hospitals do not have ventilators and ICU beds. We will need a lot of support from the Delhi government before we can begin to admit Covid-19 patients,” the official added.
Earlier this week, resident doctors of Hindu Rao and Kasturba hospitals had threatened to tender mass resignations if they were not paid their pending salaries. Doctors at Hindu Rao have not been paid their salaries since February this year, while doctors at Kasturba Hospital have not been paid since March.
The Delhi Medical Association, with which the state government is holding meetings to discuss bed augmentation plans, said valuable resources are going unutilised because of political differences between the civic bodies and the city administration.
“There’s no doubt that trying to utilise the available resources — hospitals, to be precise — is the first thing any government should do. Plans such as taking over hotels, banquet halls and stadiums are capital intensive and setting up makeshift hospitals will take more time, compared to readying operational hospitals for Covid patients,” said Dr Girish Tyagi, president of Delhi Medical Association.