Bengaluru: A Karnataka Congress MLA Sowmya Reddy took to Twitter to lambast the State government asking ” “Do you know hospitals are denying treatment?”. She also asked “Why are people dying waiting for an ambulance? Why didn’t you collaborate with private hospitals…? Why huge lag/delay in getting COVID-19 test results? Why haven’t private labs been ramped up? Why wasn’t rapid antigen method used?” ran the avalanche of questions posed by Ms Reddy.
Ms. Reddy is the Congress legislator from Jayanagara. This comment came in one of a series of tweets after she tried to find a bed for a COVID19 patient for over five hours. The tweets were posted at 2.30 AM in the morning.
One of her first tweets read: “On the phone calling hospital after hospital. They don’t respond/switched off, if they do they say NO BEDS/with oxygen/ICU. Finally able to accommodate the critical patient. Trying since 9pm. So angry. Pathetic state of our healthcare!” A government-issued list of COVID-19 hospitals was attached, along with a screenshot of a mobile phone’s call history that showed phone calls made between 1.48 AM and 2.18 AM.
Karnataka has 19,710 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far, of which 293 are deaths linked to the infectious virus. On Friday the state reported 1,694 new cases – its biggest single-day spike – with 994 of those detected in Bengaluru (urban) alone.
@CMofKarnataka @BSYBJP : What was the government doing past 3 months ?
Why was the healthcare & infrastructure prepared during the lockdown period?
Why are people dying waiting for an ambulance?
Why didn’t you collaborate with private hospitals before the spike in our city?
— Sowmya Reddy (@Sowmyareddyr) July 3, 2020
Why the huge lag/delay in getting #COVID19 test results? 30k+ pending?
Why haven’t all private labs been ramped up? By Increasing people/more labs?
Why wasn’t rapid antigen method used?(supposed to be faster)
Whatever happened to 4Ts Testing, tracing, tracking & treatment ?
— Sowmya Reddy (@Sowmyareddyr) July 3, 2020
The reaction of the State Government to the rising no. of cases has been a full lockdown on Sundays and night curfews starting at 8 PM tonight.
That the Government is struggling to contain and simultaneously deal with the menace is evident in the fact that it is committed to increasing the number of beds through the temporary conversion of stadiums, hostels and wedding halls, and ambulances, and a centralized bed allocation systems besides the reinforced Sunday lockdowns.
But the legislator from Jayanagara questioned the implementation of these decisions in her tweet. In reference to the latter decision, Ms. Reddy today asked: “Why haven’t you used these facilities until now? Converted wedding halls, stadiums, exhibition centers, etc?”. She pointed out that this would have freed up the limited number of ICU (intensive care unit) beds for more seriously ill patients.
Ms. Reddy signed with a warning, saying: “It will get worse! Time to act!” “I am an MLA and this is my experience. Imagine the plight of people who don’t have connections or strings to pull. I hope the government gets their act together,” she said.
