“We expect beds from you, not food”

With the daily increase in the official number of cases in Vadodara and a steep increase in oxygen demand, relatives of COVID patients are literally begging to secure even a single bed for their breathless family member.

In order to verify information around this situation, we rang up the hospitals which showed vacant beds on the VMC dashboard, but to our surprise, they did not have a single bed vacant for new admission. Apart from oxygen beds, there is a heavy shortage of prescribed injections which are now not available in any medical stores of the city.

O.S.D Dr. Vinod Rao held a meeting with the elected representatives to give them a heads up about an increase in the demand for oxygen in the near future as patients from Madhya Pradesh are getting admitted to SSG and GMERS. It was also noted that approximately 170 tons of oxygen is being used in Vadodara. However, there is still a shortfall of roughly 10 tons. Now all eyes are on the MP, MLAs and Mayor to secure more oxygen for the city from the state government.

The major activities carried out by the MLAs and MP are the distribution of food items, setting up the help desk, and creating a COVID center with no oxygen facility. On social media, people pleaded for help in the comments section of the pictures to arrange oxygen and medicines and further said that they did not need food at that moment. People who elected these representatives expect them to arrange beds, oxygen and medicine instead of providing food items that can be managed by non-profits instead.

Yesterday, when Ranjanben Bhatt went for the food distribution outside SSG Hospital, the daughter of a patient cried out in front of her saying a dead body was kept beside her father’s bed for hours and she wants her father to get shifted to another hospital as that affects his mental health. Relatives of the patients have complained about not being able to get in touch with their admitted family members for several days due to the shortage of hospital staff.

Yesterday, 767 new cases were reported, 9 died and 386 were discharged. O.S.D Dr. Rao said SSG Hospital is running at the fullest capacity with about 750 admitted patients and COVID hospital at Samras with about 480 patients admitted.