Post on ‘ground reality’ of health system goes viral

Shared over 29,000 times in 30 hours

In a social media post, which has been shared over 29,000 times in 30 hours, a person narrated how his COVID-19 infected father-in-law died in Delhi after the family could not find a hospital with a ventilator.

The person said that the system is a “complete mess” and that the ground reality is far from what is being projected by the government.

“In toto, it’s a complete mess! I am writing this so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else ever! I don’t intend to criticize the govt here, I want them to read this and correct this mess. Ground reality is far from whats being projected !! Stay safe, take full precautions ! Spread this so that it reaches the govt [sic],” Sachan Deep Singh wrote in a Facebook post.

Mr. Singh said that his 64-year-old father-in-law developed fever around May 11 and was first tested negative for COVID-19 by a lab on May 19. Due to “heaviness in breathing” he was then shifted to a hospital where he was on ventilator and on May 22, he was tested positive for the virus.

“Since he was a COVID positive, the hospital wanted to shift him to a COVID hospital for which they asked “us” to find a hospital. Challenge doesn’t end here, we also needed an ambulance with ventilator which wasn’t there. We tried almost all hospitals including govt hospital LNJP and got only one answer that ventilators are not available [sic],” he further wrote.

“We went to the ICU to check on him (on May 22 night) and got to know that we lost him!” he wrote.

On Monday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said: “It is the hospital’s responsibility to take a patient (COVID-19 positive) in their ambulance to a private or government hospital (COVID-19 treatment facility).”

He had also said that the a system was being set up that will inform a person about the nearest COVID hospital.