Karnataka's poor health infrastructure puts COVID patients, public in peril

Imagine a patient who had tested positive for COVID-19 is all set to get discharged from a hospital even before the primary contacts at home are tested for the disease. That’s precisely what’s happening in Bangalore.

Spike in COVID-19 cases in the past week resulted in a shortage of beds in Bengaluru and other districts. Both COVID and non-COVID patients struggle to get treatment in hospitals.

The positivity rate that stood at 1 per cent until lockdown-2 a month ago, which the government kept boasting about, reached 10.45 per cent on July 4. This means one in every 10 person tests positive for novel coronavirus.

On the one hand, the government converts stadiums and trade centres into COVID-care hospitals. On the other, private hospitals, which were pressed into service due to the shortage of beds in public health centres, were forcing COVID-19 patients to get discharged in less than a week’s time.

Even before boosting the healthcare infrastructure, the government announced relaxed lockdown norms to boost the economy, and now it plans to impose strict lockdown again. 

Cases in Bangalore shot up from 564 on June 03 to 2,531 on June 27, and the figures stood at 8,345 on July 04. It has increased by 15 times in a month. With 7,250 active cases as of July 04, Bangalore accounted for 60 per cent of overall active cases (11,966) in Karnataka.

The government, which had been in denial about the community transmission, woke up late to accept it earlier this week.

Recently, a 65-year-old man with COVID symptoms got admitted to the Manipal Hospital (Old Airport Road) on June 25. Two days later, civic body authorities informed the patient that he had tested positive.

The hospital did not test two of his family members who had taken the patient to the hospital, but asked them to home quarantine as they developed no symptoms.

The civic body and the healthcare workers, whose role is to do contact tracing, failed to test even primary contacts. After four days, the authorities asked the family members to walk into a testing centre 5 km away. Such a plan entails putting people on the streets at risk. 

“They did not do any contact tracing until we prompted them. We begged the authorities to test us as we had come in contact with the COVID-positive patient. Meanwhile, the private hospital was forcing my dad (the COVID patient) to get discharged even as our results were yet to come,” said one of the sons of the patient.

“We have a pregnant woman and an elderly person at home. How can we trust the healthcare system if such is the mess?”

Besides, the patients are now discharged without an RC-PCR test after treatment as per the revised policy. Earlier, a COVID-19 positive patient was considered negative only after two consecutive negative tests during the 14 days treatment time.

When asked about the delay in testing the primary contact and failure of the contact tracing, Dr Bhaskar Rajkumar, a civic body medical officer, said the success of contact tracing depends on the healthcare workers who are assigned to a patient. “Lack of training would have led to this situation,” he adds. 

Related News: COVID patient in Bengaluru dies waiting on road, ambulance comes 2 hrs later

Even as Bhaskar informed the family members not to take back the patient home, the private hospital insisted that he be shifted.

With frontline workers, including doctors, hospital staff and lab technicians, increasingly testing positive, some major hospitals like Jayadeva and Nimhans have shut their facilities for a few days. This worsened the already-stressed healthcare system in the state.

Some even took to social media to complain about the supply of defective masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) kits. A frontline doctor at Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), who complained of faulty PPEs alleged that seniors had harassed and humiliated her for raising the issue.

After a long post, narrating the ordeal, she said “Clapping and showering flowers isn’t going to serve the purpose. Sooner or later we won’t have enough doctors to treat COVID-19 patients if the authorities do not address the issue at the earliest.”

Doctors are our frontline warriors battling the pandemic. Govt has taken all necessary measures to ensure safety of our doctors. I have taken note of supply of defective masks & PPE kits to KIMS doctors & ordered an enquiry. Management will be held responsible if found guilty. pic.twitter.com/aYI27eHHj5

— Dr Sudhakar K (@mla_sudhakar) July 4, 2020

Meanwhile, the medical education minister acknowledged the concerns and said he’s ordering an inquiry into the incident. Such is the apathy that patients are left to die on the road unattended and the administration delays test results by three to four days.

Even a sitting MLA, with all the political clout, couldn’t help a patient get a hospital bed on time. She lambasted the BJP government on Friday in a series of tweets.

“I am an MLA & this is my experience. Imagine the plight of ppl (people) who don’t have connections or strings to pull. A 30-year-old person died 2 days ago, not just ppl (people) with comorbidities. I can go on & on. But I hope the government gets their act together… (SIC),” Sowmya Reddy, Jayanagar MLA tweeted.

On the phone calling hospital after hospital. They don’t respond/switched off, if they do they say NO BEDS/with oxygen/ICU. Was finally able to accommodate a critical patient after a lot of requesting. Trying since 9pm. So angry.Pathetic state of our healthcare!

@CMofKarnataka pic.twitter.com/5nr8IUE8ma

— Sowmya Reddy (@Sowmyareddyr) July 3, 2020

As the healthcare system crumbles with the administration’s failure to handle the COVID crisis, the city is placed under 33 hours of total lockdown starting Saturday night until Monday (July 6) morning.