COVID-19 test reports have become the most demanded prerequisite for both infected and uninfected patients trying to get admission in private hospitals for emergency medical treatment.
Where the patients are not infected but have other ailments, hospital authorities are seeking COVID-19 test to be done before admission, thereby losing the golden hour wherein the patients can be saved.
A case in point was S. Anasuya, a 75-year-old from Seetaphalmandi, who died of paralytic stroke last week. She was taken to several private and corporate hospitals after the stroke, but refused admission everywhere.
“I first took her to a renowned diagnostic centre in Secunderabad, where MRI was done upon our request. The staff there told us, she could be saved if given an injection within three hours. I rushed her to the emergency care of a corporate hospital, where they demanded COVID-19 test as she had a little cough,” S. Shiva, her son, related.
Thereafter, he approached several hospitals, and everywhere received the same stock reply. Finally, she was admitted to a nondescript nursing home, but they soon gave up on her and asked him to take her to Osmania General Hospital.
“There, they took samples for COVID-19 test. But looking at the conditions in the OGH, my mother begged me to take her home, and I had no choice but to bring her back. She breathed her last at home, and two days later, we received her COVID-19 test result. It was negative,” Shiva shared.
While such was the condition of patients without infection, admission to hospital is difficult even for COVID-19 positive patients, if they do not produce proof.
Despite the fact that COVID-19 patients are heavily stigmatised and nobody would falsely claim a positive status, hospital authorities are denying admission without report.
No proof
Unfortunately, in majority of such cases, patients end up not having any proof on them, as they would have learnt of their positive status only through phone. After the rapid antigen tests have come into use, reports are the last thing the labs are bothering themselves with. This is the case especially wherever mass tests are conducted at workplaces.
“We were tested at home by a team from government hospital using rapid antigen sticks. Within half an hour, they declared six of us positive and left. When asked for reports, they told us to take the pictures of the sticks. We stayed in home isolation for 10 days, after which my brother’s situation has worsened.
He had a hard time getting admission to a corporate hospital as there were no reports.
“We had to pull quite some strings to get him admitted,” Sudhakar (name changed), a patient, shared.
Patients requiring Remdesivir injection too were being asked to produce diagnostic reports, but several of them were unable to as their results were conveyed orally, sources said.
