Amid the rising cases of Coronavirus infections, the medical condition has deteriorated in the country. While the world is fighting the second wave of coronavirus pandemic with the help of doctors and frontline workers, but in India, VIPs are being given preference over these COVID warriors.
A video of a doctor at RML hospital is going viral on the internet where the doctor is seen saying, “After being tested COVID positive on 12 April, my medical condition deteriorated on Saturday, 17 April. I was having breathing difficulty, my heart rate reached 155-160 BPM, and I was coughing severely.”
He said, “Since I am a PG resident at the Department of Dermatology at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, I rushed to the same hospital for medical support.”
“One would find this difficult to believe: Despite being a doctor and a frontline worker, I was unable to get a bed at the hospital. I waited for at least 30 minutes to get oxygen supply at the hospital’s trauma centre, and a bed was also not allotted to me.”
With the help of my colleagues of the Resident Doctors Association, after struggling for 2-3 hours, he managed to get a bed at the hospital, he said.
He further said, On 11 April, he went to the COVID screening center at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital in Delhi, as he was feeling feverish. When he thought that he would be able to get done with this quickly as he had my OPD to look after.
“But To my surprise, I saw four of my colleagues from the RML waiting in the queue for over an hour to give their samples,” he said. When I enquired about the delay, the doctors said samples of people with references of politicians, ministries, and other VIPs were being collected first and then our samples would be taken.
If they were treated with such delay, I wasn’t surprised when I had to wait in the queue for over an hour after registration, he said.
We all are aware that these so-called VIPs don’t take treatment at government hospitals. They have big private hospitals for their diagnosis.
Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), the associations of doctors, have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing concern about the prevailing “VIP culture” in government hospitals amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
However, nothing has changed even after the letter to the PM except that the VIP screening centre has been renamed to COVID screening centre.
“I appeal to the governments to not break the backbone of the country, of those who are leading the fight against the pandemic, by treating COVID worriers as secondary. It’s high time that the hospital administration take cognisance of the matter and support the hard-working COVID warriors”, he said.
Watch video here: (Video Courtesy The Quint)
