Mumbai: Critical Patients Having To Wait For At Least 12 Hours Before Getting ICU Bed, Claims Report

Covid-19 patients are having a hard time finding ICU beds in Mumbai and are needing to wait for at least 12 hours before managing to be allotted one, Times of India has reported.

The report states that the ordeal of patients continues despite claims by civic and state officials of more ICU beds being made available in private hospitals. The report also quotes some civic officials as admitting that ICU beds currently entail a 12 hour wait.

The report gave an example of two Covid-19 patients.

The son of a 59-year old patient from Jogeshwari spent 12 hours making calls to arrange a bed for his mother. He ultimately managed to shift her to a civic hospital in Kandivli.

Another Covid-19 patient remained stranded for nine hours while waiting to be allotted a bed in a Ghatkopar hospital. The Covid-19 patient was ultimately shifted to a Mulund facility but died due to a heart attack. His family maintains that he could have been saved if he received timely treatment.

Another situation arising in Mumbai is the struggle of moving in-treatment patients to designated Covid-19 centres after they develop symptoms. The struggling families have claimed that they took up to two days to shift the patients to Covid-19 centres.

Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani though has claimed that there is no shortage of ICU bed, the report says.