Raja, son of an RTC conductor Ramanjaneyulu (50), has been running from pillar to post for the COVID death certificate and the other required papers after his father succumbed to the virus at the Government General Hospital here. On the other hand, 50-year-old U. Srinivas, who got the COVID death certificate of his wife Nagamani who died at GGH, has been making repeated visits to the administrative offices pleading for payment of ex gratia as per the guidelines framed by the National Disaster Management Authority early.
There are many such cases in the district while the plight of those who took treatment in non-notified private hospitals is even worse as they find it a Herculean task to complete the formalities like counter signature by the health worker and medical officer concerned. “I have no hopes of getting the ex gratia,” laments K. Suresh who lost his father to COVID-19 after spending several lakhs of rupees for medical treatment in a non-notified hospital when medicines were in short supply and black-marketed then.
Process initiated
The application processing mechanism has now been set in motion with the constitution of a COVID-19 death ascertaining committee under Joint Collector T.S. Chetan. Every application for ex gratia will be carefully screened and the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of the next of kin of eligible COVID victims will be credited ₹50,000 each subject to submission of all the required documents, according to a committee member Dr. Tirumala Rao.
The authorities expect the applications for ex gratia to outnumber the death toll of over 1,100 as the families of the deceased from the district who had taken medical treatment outside the district and outside the State also are expected to approach the District Revenue Officer for relief.
The genuineness of the documents, including the discharge summary issued by the hospitals concerned, have to be thoroughly verified, according to GGH Superintendent and Committee member Dr. D Sreeramulu.
Many patients had died after recovering from coronavirus and they may not get the financial benefit, according to GGH sources.
‘Officials under pressure’
According to Ongole Town Development Committee president Marella Subba Rao, who has been helping scores of bereaved families in completing the documentation process, the health officials are under pressure not to liberally issue COVID death certificates to all patients for various reasons.
Pressing for a mechanism by the district administration to identify all COVID deaths, including the ones that had occurred in private hospitals and providing ex gratia to the kin, Communist Party of India (Marxist) district secretary P. Anjaneyulu maintains that at least 30% more deaths have occurred in April, May and June compared to the deaths in the previous year. Also, the COVID deaths are at least 10 times more than the official toll, he adds.
