Councillor fails to get ventilator, bed at private hospsitals, dies in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: A woman councillor from Sangareddy died from novel coronavirus late on Sunday at the state-run Gandhi Hospital after struggling to get a bed with ventilator for days in several corporate hospitals of the city.
T Jayaprakash Reddy, a Congress party legislator from Sangareddy, alleged that he along with family members of the councillor had made rounds of several hospitals only to be turned away.
“The hospital authorities also told me that there was already a long waiting list of patients before the number of the councillor, who had severe breathing problems, could come up for admission into the hospital,” he told TOI.
Reddy quipped if a legislator could not get her party councillor a bed with ventilator in a private hospital, one can imagine the plight of a common man.
“The situation on the coronavirus front in the state will turn worse and casualties will increase if immediate steps are not taken to upgrade the infrastructure in hospitals to treat patients,” he said.
Recollecting the days leading up to her mother’s death, the councillor’s son said the district hospital authorities in Sanga Reddy advised them on July 1 to take her to Chest hospital at Erragadda for Covid-19 tests as there was no ventilator facility in the district hospital. Later, she was shifted to Gandhi Hospital after failing to get any bed in private hospitals.
“Since July 1 we have been running around private hospitals after she developed symptoms of Covid-19. With no bed-cum-ventilator facility in private hospitals, we were advised to take her to Chest Hospital where her report came positive on July 3. She was shifted to Gandhi Hospital where she passed away yesterday,” he said.
An angry Jayaprakash Reddy also released a video, where he appealed to chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, municipal affairs minister K T Rama Rao and finance minister T Harish Rao to take steps and save people, many of whom were dying due to beds not being available in hospitals.
He demanded that CM KCR should immediately ensure that one lakh ventilators and two lakh oxygen equipment is made available in every district hospital to treat Covid-19 patients.