As People Struggle to Secure Covid Beds, Rajkot Civil Hospital Puts It Up for Sale at Rs 9,000

As India reels under acute oxygen and Covid bed shortage, a video on social media revealed that beds were put up for sale for Rs. 9,000 in a civil hospital in Rajkot.

A video capturing the conversation between an agent and the kin of a covid patient in Rajkot went viral on Wednesday.

In the video, an agent can be seen asking the relatives for a hefty amount in order to secure a bed at the civil hospital in Rajkot.

“I won’t settle for anything less than Rs 9,000. Even I have to pay to that inside (Rajkot Civil hospital). You will get the bed within 30 minutes.” the agent can be heard saying in the video.

Following this incident, an attendant and sweeper at the Civil hospital were nabbed by the crime branch. The accused, Jagdish Solanki (20) and Hitesh Mahida (18) admitted to arranging a bed for only the relative of the patient in the video, however, the crime branch was of the opinion that there are many other patients who might be negotiating with the duo to get a bed at the hospital.

V K Gadhvi, police inspector, crime branch told TOI that the accused took advantage of a crumbling healthcare system in the state to give backdoor entry to covid patients in exchange for money.

Upon questioning it was further revealed that there is a bigger nexus at play. The accused said that the money charged was getting divided among many people, including some doctors at the hospitals.

Meanwhile, states across India are facing immense difficulty in arranging beds for Covid patients.

“Almost 86% of the total bed strength has now been pressed into Covid care service. All 167 beds, including 37 meant for critical care, are occupied,” Pradip Tondon, CEO of Belle Vue Clinic in Kolkata told Times Now.

A report by India today found several govt-run hospitals outstretched as the new wave of pandemic surges ferociously.

In Mumbai, 89 of 2,529 ICU beds and 32 of 1,302 ventilator beds were available across dedicated Covid health centres (DCHC) and dedicated Covid hospitals (DCH) as of April 13.

Meanwhile in Nagpur, the use of Remdesivir, oxygen went out of control as bed need jumped 90% in 2 weeks.

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