When Chennai Waits For Beds

Left to die in ambulance? ask patients as queues get longer outside hospitals

- Omjasvin MD

Probably for the first time in Chennai’s history, government hospitals in the city are starting to feel inadequate to meet the growing needs of Covid-19 patients, who are struggling to get an admission.

Sriram, 29, anxiously waited in an ambulance, holding the hand of his Covid-positive mother. He continuously checked her oxygen saturation, which, at one point, was around 90, when he found out that there were about 20 other ambulances, with patients inside, waiting to get a bed. Then he lost hope of getting his mother admitted on time and went to the verge of breaking down. This was the scene outside Stanley Medical College Hospital, one of the biggest tertiary hospitals in Chennai. As the second wave of the pandemic rages in Tamil Nadu, the ‘Healthcare capital of India, its capital city, Chennai, has not been spared. The city is struggling for beds and oxygen supply while patients are pushed to a hopeless state gasping for breath. “I came here with my 90-year-old grandmother at 11 am. It is now 4 pm and her oxygen saturation level is dipping. She has not been admitted yet and she is sitting on a chair in the outpatient ward of Stanley GH, says Suriya.

LIKE Suriya’s grandmother, there are about 20 patients, waiting in ambulances to get admitted. All their caretakers and kin sit on the pavements of the hospital, desperately waiting for a bed.