Hospitals Can’t Turn Away Suspected COVID-19 Patients: Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: There is no shortage of beds for critical coronavirus patients in Delhi and no one showing symptoms should be turned away, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today amid criticism and complaints on social media over alleged lack of attention from hospitals to those who are turning up to get admitted. Mr Kejriwal said some hospitals are “doing mischief” and they will not be spared.

“Some hospitals are denying admission to COVID-19 patients. I am warning those who think they will be able to do black-marketing of beds using the influence of their protectors from other parties, you will not be spared,” Mr Kejriwal said.

“Please allow a few days for us to sort this out. We will investigate and take action against those who are refusing patients even when beds are available… Some are involved in black-marketing of beds,” the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister said the healthcare system in the national capital will, however, collapse if thousands of asymptomatic people queued up for testing. He said testing should be for only those who show symptoms to avoid overrunning the healthcare system’s capacity to treat people.

Delhi recorded 1,330 fresh coronavirus cases on Friday, taking the COVID-19 tally in the city beyond the 26,000-mark, and the number of deaths due to the disease jumped to 708, the authorities said.

Some have tweeted that they were made to run from one hospital to another and refused admission or testing, despite showing symptoms.

“We launched a mobile app to stop the black marketing of beds. We thought of making information about number of beds and ventilators in hospitals transparent. There was uproar over it as if we committed a crime,” Mr Kejriwal said.

As of today, no dearth of beds. Against 8645 total available beds, 4038 occupied n 4607 vacant. These are real beds, not mere figures. As of today, sufficient beds available. But some of them refuse admission. We won’t permit their mischief. Give us a few days. We r at it https://t.co/z8SGrRXeiO

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 6, 2020

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said the “issue” was that some hospitals are not updating the data on the Delhi government’s coronavirus tracking application on time or misrepresenting actual data when patients call.

“Patients were not getting data on hospitals before, which the Delhi Corona app is trying to fix. We are making hospital bed data live and real time soon,” Mr Jain added.