Those manning war rooms say people don’t follow procedure, but patients’ kin say they seek help only when officials fail
Kin of many COVID-19 patients say ward war rooms haven’t been of help despite waiting for hours. File pic
COVID positive patients needing a bed must call the ward war room — this was the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) message on social media recently in an attempt to make them follow protocols for COVID treatment. However, people are struggling to get beds despite repeated calls to the war rooms and thus are having to approach influencers and corporators through social media to get beds.
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Citizens have been told to wait for beds amid a shortage. File pic
With patients and their families facing uncertainties with regard to getting normal and ICU beds, groups of citizens have been helping them out. However, the BMC claims that this parallel window for bed allotment is causing confusion and chaos and could create problems for those in need. Social media is filled with people putting out information related to beds and other resources by taking the help of their contacts. The civic body said that while the citizens’ initiatives are good deeds, calling senior officials is not helping anyone and leading to confusion.
A tweet by BMC said, “One big final request. To individuals & groups calling sr. officials to persuade for a bed for someone they promised to help, we too dial the War Room numbers for support. We would not want to jump the queue & disadvantage the ones who waited longer. We are sure everyone agrees.”
Civic officials said that there are enough beds and it is for the citizens to accept the beds they get and not insist on getting admitted to private hospitals or demand ICU beds. However, in a majority of cases where various Twitter groups have helped in terms of bed, many people were in a desperate situation and could not wait for the BMC to get back.
Kurla resident, Zain Abbas, said, “My friend’s father was very serious and we were roaming in the ambulance with him as we did not get any response from the ward war room. Directly approaching the hospital did not help either. It was only after we reached out to a group of citizens helping patients that we managed to get an ICU bed after 13 hours of wait. If the BMC could arrange it for us, we could have got a senior citizen admitted much faster.”
An Andheri patient’s son who did not wish to be named, said, “We had called the K East ward war room on April 19 and wanted an ICU bed for my father as he was bedridden but not very critical with COVID. However, his condition deteriorated and till April 22, there was no bed available. I had also asked BMC to help me get a bed in a private hospital but they said they don’t have the authority. So we approached a group helping citizens and got an ICU bed right away.”
‘AAP helped get ICU bed’
In another instance, Arun Suryanarayanan’s parents were told by the ward war room to isolate but they faced trouble later. Suryanarayanan said, “At first, my father had fever but his oxygen levels were okay. Two days later, his condition deteriorated and there was no help from the war room. Through Twitter, we managed to get him a bed at the Mulund Jumbo COVID Centre but even there his condition worsened and he had to be shifted to the ICU. But there was no ICU bed available and we had to struggle again. Then AAP members helped us with an ICU bed.”
The BMC has also asked citizens to not insist on ICU beds on calls itself as it is a doctor’s decision. A BMC tweet said, “Nevertheless, in exceptional cases, serious patients may approach BMC/govt/pvt hosp/nursing homes for walk-in bed, with COVID+ve report Hosp will assess medical condition & then decide on admission, but they will have to intimate local War Room to update the online bed dashboard.”
Asking people to be patient amid rising cases, the BMC said in case of issues with the war room, people must complain to senior authorities. However, who the senior authorities are was not specified.
10-hour wait
A Malad resident, Heena Shaikh, had to wait nearly 10 hours for the war room to allot beds for her senior parents. She said, “The ward war room first told us to isolate at home as everyone in the family had tested positive. Later they told me that because my father is comorbid and over 75 years old, it’s better to admit him. They said they will take time to get a bed as there was a shortage but they kept in touch and finally, after almost 10 hours, we got a bed. My father is recovering now.”
13 HR
Time a Kurla resident spent searching for a bed
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