With the district running out of ICU and oxygen-supported beds, distressing scenes ensued at the Anantapur GGH as tens of patients, hooked up to oxygen cylinders that they bought on their own, continued to wait outside in ambulances for admission.
Many of them have come from across the district as they were referred to the Anantapur Government General Hospital for an oxygen bed. One patient, whose oxygen saturation level had dipped to 88%, had come from Dharmavaram after finding no vacancy at the Gafoor Hospital there.
Sometimes, those waiting here are left with no choice but to occupy the bed where a COVID patient had just died. Frantic calls were being made to people’s representatives to seek their help in getting a bed.
Meanwhile, attendants of the patients at Super Speciality Hospital and GGH have complained that doctors do not visit them and only nurses come to see the patients. There was one nurse for more than 50 patients, they said. Previously, kin of the patients used to attend to them, but now that none is allowed into the wards, they are left to fend for themselves.
‘Recruitments made’
While GGH Superintendent K. Venkateswara Rao said close to 1,000 medical and paramedical staff were recruited on a temporary basis and they had joined duties, they are not adequate for the number of patients.
“Majority of the patients coming to the three government-run hospitals in Anantapur are in serious condition as the private hospitals are discharging them and referring them to the GGH as soon their health deteriorates. In some cases, they collapse even before reaching a hospital or after getting admitted here,” Dr. Venkateswara Rao added.
All MLAs, attending a review meeting on COVID, complained that even in private hospitals they did not have an adequate number of doctors and that the patients were being looked after by the nurses.
