Health

Chennai-based freelance writer Divya Sainathan’s mother-in-law, R Gayathri, spent two weeks at the hospital for COVID treatment as she had 75% infection in both lungs. She needed 15 litres of oxygen per day at the time of her admission. It was brought down to 1 litre over two weeks. “At this point, we were asked to take her home, because the only service she needed at the hospital was oxygen. We were told to get an oxygen concentrator at home and monitor her SpO2 levels every two hours. If it fell below 92 for two hours, we were asked to…

The rapid spread of the COVID virus in India is worsening by the day. As is its management. Thousands are dying and lakhs are getting infected every day. Desperate cries for oxygen or a hospital bed from relatives and friends of COVID patients are flooding social media. Open the morning papers and what hits you are pictures of sick patients and their families gathering at the gates of hospitals. It has become a literal ‘life and death’ struggle. For even after death, bodies have to wait for space at cremation and burial grounds. This is definitely a war-like situation, where…

The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is devastating India with a huge chunk of the population testing positive for the virus, exacerbating the challenges of an inadequate and already-burdened healthcare system. Lack of sufficient healthcare equipment such as oxygen concentrators, ICUs and ventilators have left hundreds of serious patients scrounging for beds and medicines. In the light of the ongoing crisis, the apartment management software platform ADDA in collaboration with Citizen Matters, organised a webinar on the topic 'COVID Management in Residential Communities'. From (L-R): Vikram Rai, General Secretary of Bangalore Apartment Federation, Anish Nema, EC Member, Prestige Ferns Residency,…

Randeep D is currently Special Commissioner for CHBMS (Central Hospital Bed Management System). Pic: Twitter/Randeep D Last week, MP Tejasvi Surya caused a furore when he made allegations of corruption in the allotment of hospital beds to COVID patients. Even before Surya made the allegations, the BBMP, on May 3, had appointed a three-member committee to study and recommend changes in the CHBMS (Central Hospital Bed Management System). The committee was to plug loopholes in the CHBMS software that allowed for its misuse. On May 7, the committee submitted its 33-point recommendations; the very next day, BBMP passed an order…

Indulekha (name changed) from ECR nearly had a nervous breakdown when her father’s oxygen saturation levels dipped to 78. COVID treatment for her 72-year-old father at a private hospital was something she could not consider. “They quoted a sum of Rs 2 lakh a day for ventilator support. How can a lower middle class family like ours ever afford it?” Indulekha questioned. Her only choice was to go for the government hospitals.  On May 4th, the family waited outside the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Stanley Medical College hospital for hours, in vain. “Multiple calls to the 104 helpline…

Since last week, Bengalureans have been bombarded with news that BBMP's COVID bed allocation software has major glitches, leading to corruption in allotment. Even before MP Tejasvi Surya came out with allegations of corruption, the BBMP had appointed a three-member committee on May 3, to study how the bed allotment system can be made "transparent and robust". The committee comprised of: V Ponnuraj, nodal officer for the state COVID war roomKumar Pushkar, nodal officer for CHBMS (Central Hospital Bed Management System)Vipin Singh, nodal officer for 1912 helpline The committee submitted its report to BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta on May…

[Based on a conversation with Dr P V Karthik] In the fight against the current COVID tsunami that’s engulfing us, we, along with a group of amazing volunteers (most of them being young college students and young working professionals), have been trying to respond to SOS tweets and alerts coming in from various parts of the country. With the number of SOS cases increasing from Chennai, we assembled a dedicated team of volunteers to cater to region-specific requests.  Those who made calls to hospitals in the last 3-4 days will know how difficult it is to get a bed in…

India is in the throes of the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak. Cases are shooting up at alarming rates across the country every day. The crunch of medical resources on one hand, and the cost of treatment especially in critical cases on the other, have left citizens in dire straits. In these circumstances, health insurance and the extent of coverage received under existing policies assumes huge importance. Personal accounts are often not very encouraging. Jayalakshmi Krishnan from Chennai had opted for reimbursement when she was admitted to a private hospital for COVID treatment. "I was at the hospital's general…

Bengalureans have a multitude of COVID helplines, but how helpful are these? Those who have called the helplines for beds say it takes hours or even days to get a bed now. When it comes to follow-up for those in home isolation, some say they got calls on time, but some others say the calls came too late to be helpful. "There are simply no beds" Biju Mathews, a resident of Koramangala 3rd block, is part of a volunteer group that supports COVID patients. Last week, his group got requests for hospital beds from two critically-ill patients. Despite calling COVID…

Phase III of the country's largest vaccination drive has been officially launched from May 1, 2021, where the youth of the country aged between 18 to 44 years will get themselves vaccinated. Remember, the vaccine, whichever you take, does not make you immune from the virus. But it does reduce the severity of its effects. With the new order, the government has made it compulsory for all above 18 years to get vaccinated. However, due to the surge of COVID cases in India, a few states have delayed the vaccination drive, though registrations began on April 28, 2021. This has…