Non-corona patients seeking emergency treatment have a tough time

Today morning, an 85-year-old lady, a resident of Gurgaon, who broke her hip bone, was denied medical assistance by hospitals as she tested Covid-19 positive on testing after arrival at the hospital. Hers is an asymptomatic case.

Not only did she continue to be in pain till afternoon, no one knew of the procedural issues and the course of action.

How many of us know of the authorities that need to be contacted in case one of us tests positive? The family members finally had to seek help on a Whatsapp group.

Similar instances have been reported from other parts of the country. A 50-year-old resident of Salt Lake City in Kolkata had to rush his father for an emergency surgery. The hospital authorities denied admission until he provided a Covid-19 report.

These cases bring to light some critical issues. At a time when the number of Covid-19 cases is spiking in the country, no detailed public guidelines have been issued by the local district level authorities on the dos and don’ts or the names of authorized doctors, hospitals and testing centres.

It is painful to think of the plight of the patients and their family members in these circumstances.

In the instance of the Gurgaon lady, the hospitals should have guided the patient and her families on the next course of action. But they did nothing.

It ill behoves a civilized society to be casual to the sick and the old. As we graduate to a matured society, we need to ensure that the loose ends are tied and citizens are not made to suffer unnecessarily.

If this wasn’t enough, the highhandedness of resident welfare associations (RWAs) across the national capital region (NCR) has also made lives miserable for people.

As authorized medical assistance often does not reach on time, patients and their families and friends have to adhere to the RWA norms which are often capriciously devised.

Most RWAs in Delhi and the NCR have shown an unprecedented paranoia barring domestic help from entering the premises. “We don’t even have any concrete information to conclude that the coronavirus infection has been contracted from the domestic help but the general notion is to blame them for the disease. The authorities too don’t clear the air on such ill-informed notions,” a Gurgaon resident said.

While the Ministry of Home Affairs has been issuing stringent guidelines on the lockdown, no government authorities have come out with concrete guidelines on Covid-19 medical assistance. Everything is, as the Hindi phrase goes, Ram-bharose (at the mercy of God)..