New Delhi: A viral video of Bengaluru-based doctor Taha Mateen has brought to light an acute shortage of doctors and nurses to treat Covid-19 patients in the city.
“I have beds, I have oxygen beds, I have ventilators, I have all the equipment. I have another 30 beds like this but I don’t have doctors working here,” Mateen, the managing director of HBS Hospital in Bengaluru’s Shivajinagar, can be heard saying.
Karnataka has so far seen 23,474 cases and 372 deaths.
Recording the video from a Covid-19 ICU in his hospital, Dr Mateen calls the crisis a “virtual bloodbath” and says people have been unable to find beds in the city’s facilities.
HSB Hospital was turned into a Covid-19 hospital only four days ago. While it has a team of 25 doctors and 50 nurses, only 12 and 20 respectively have been coming for duty due to fear of contracting the virus.
Dr Mateen ends his video with a heartfelt plea to his colleagues and contemporaries.
“I need six hours of your time a day. This is my fervent request. Sometimes the army is in the frontlines, sometimes the fire people are, sometimes it’s the police. Right now, you and I, my fellow doctors are in the frontlines. Let us show we care. It does not matter how long we live, it matters how we live,” he says.
Speaking to ThePrint, Dr Mateen said, “When I motivated my staff — they asked me, if I get sick, will you take care of me? If my family gets sick, will you take care of them?”
“The medical community is our hero. The National Health Service of UK has applauded and encouraged them. Where are those messages for us? Who is honouring our doctors and nurses?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Shivajinagar Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad told ThePrint, “The problem is that the whole city is sitting on a volcano and the government is busy managing headlines.”
According to Arshad, there are 120 cases in Shivajinagar constituency and 9,580 across Bengaluru. He also said private hospitals have been converted into Covid-19 facilities because the state BJP government was unable to create enough infrastructure.
“The government needs to support them with paramedical staff. Neither the government is doing anything on its own, nor is it regulating the private sector,” he said.
ThePrint tried to reach out to Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr C.N. Ashwathnarayan and R. Ashoka, minister of the revenue department, excluding Muzrai, via calls and text messages but failed to receive any response till the publication of this report.
Also read: Karnataka villages lock themselves in amid Covid surge, impose Rs 5,000 fine for violations
‘Same situation across hospitals’
Citing shortage of ICU-trained doctors and nurses, Dr Mateen said people are desperate for beds with adequate equipment and hospitals for staff — both of which aren’t available.
The HSB Hospital’s situation is so dire that the administration was forced to turn away a patient after stabilising him due to shortage of staff, said Dr Mateen. He, however, added that the situation was same across hospitals.
“This is not the story of only HSB Hospital. I have leading doctors from leading corporate hospitals call and tell me that they are faced with the same problem,” he said.
Offering a solution, MLA Arshad said, “There needs to be a volunteer platform for doctors or paramedics. There is no pool of doctors that has been collected for Covid treatment in the past few months. At this juncture, you cannot leave patients without help.”
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Instead of blaming the government, can’t Rizwan Arshad, the local MLA give solution to the problem? After all he is the representative of that constituency?
Don’t “We the people” have inverters at home because the government fails to give us steady electricity?
Don’t “we the people” have sump tanks at home because our government fails to give us regular water?
When “we the people” have found ‘Plan B’ for our government’s incompetence why can’t the MLA find a solution for his constituency if he feels the government is failing?
Why can’t he make a call for volunteer doctors in his area?
This is the time to come up with solutions , not sit and blame government and escape blame of incompetence by voters. This is not a leadership quality.
Lead from the front, find a solution and become an example for other constituencies that are facing similar issues.