Over-staying COVID-19 patients in hospitals should go home, says BSY

PTI, May 11, 2021, 3:49 PM IST

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday asked COVID-19 patients over-staying in hospitals ‘unnecessarily’ to go home to make way for serious ones to get treatment.

”What is the need for the 332 patients to remain in the hospital for 30 days? They should vacate the beds. There are 503 patients in the hospital for 20 days. This way people who are staying in the hospital unnecessarily should go home,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after visiting a COVID war room in the city, which has generated data about the COVID patients, the status of beds in the hospitals, oxygen availability and other essential drugs for the pandemic.

The CM said the COVID War Room has generated information about those patients who can avail treatment at home but were staying put in the hospital depriving serious patients of getting treatment.

Responding to a query, Yediyurappa said those 503 people are in the hospital despite the advice of doctors for their discharge.

According to him, such patients should be told that the treatment was over and they should go home paving the way for admission of serious ones.

Hailing the COVID War Room management, Yediyurappa said it is a model in the country as the data are perfect giving every detail on a real-time basis about the number of people admitted, for how long they are there and the availability of beds in the hospitals for COVID patients.

”We are operating this war room in a systematic manner, which probably cannot be seen anywhere in the country,” he said.

To a query on BJP national general secretary BL Santhosh meeting him, Yediyurappa said he discussed for an hour with him COVID-19, the situation prevailing in Delhi and Karnataka and the ways to improve things.

The Chief Minister further said Santhosh assured him of every assistance from Delhi (Central government).

”As you know that today we received 120 tonnes of oxygen from Jamshedpur. This way they (Centre) are giving us whatever is required. I am absolutely content as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving priority to Karnataka,” Yediyurappa said.

The Chief Minister’s visit to COVID War Room came after BJP MP Tejasvi Surya alleged that there was a bed booking scam in private hospitals where a few War Room staff colluded with the hospitals and civic officials to block the government quota of beds.

Those beds were ‘sold’ to the needy for a hefty bribe somewhere between Rs 50,000 to over Rs 1 lakh, he had alleged.

A few people have been arrested so far in connection with the case.

With an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases in the State, the demand for hospital beds has gone up significantly leading to the shortage of beds, oxygen and drugs such as Remdesivir at many places.