Regular patients being denied treatment?

We are appalled by the tragic death of a 43-year-old woman and mother of three, after her family's desperate efforts to admit her at various hospitals went in vain. There have been other reports of similar situations in which hospitals turned down patients fearing they had COVID-19 because of the symptoms they displayed. It reveals a lack of protocol for patient management during this crisis.

A victim of hypertension, diabetes and sciatica, on March 31 the woman was taken to a hospital with mild fever where the doctor declared that her vitals showed signs of collapse along with respiratory distress. Fearing she could be infected with COVID-19, the hospital denied further diagnosis and treatment. Referred to another hospital by IEDCR, the family, upon reaching there, learnt that it could not provide ICU support to the patient and suggested that she be taken home and treated there instead. After multiple failed attempts by the family members to convince a few other hospitals over the phone to take her in, they returned home, where the patient's condition deteriorated. Distressed, the family took her to yet another hospital in an ambulance and waited 40 minutes as it was void of any emergency facility. As nothing was being done, they decided to take the patient back to the first hospital they went to. Upon reaching, there was no doctor in the emergency. Thirty excruciating minutes passed by when finally, a doctor attended only to inform them that the woman is no longer alive. A day after her death, IEDCR's test revealed that she did not have coronavirus.

Such tragedies are likely to continue as there are many patients with serious medical issues that need immediate hospital care. To tackle the ongoing crisis, it is essential that the government must enforce directives to all hospitals on the protocol of handling patients efficiently, which they must abide by. Lack of testing facilities and proper protective gear at various hospitals have become life-threatening obstacles. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that most, if not all, hospitals should be equipped to take the necessary actions instead of ignoring the wellbeing of patients, and the doctors on duty be alert around the clock. As COVID-19 cases go up we need more designated medical facilities like Kurmitola General Hospital and Kuwait-Maitree Hospital that specialise in treating patients who are COVID-19 positive or are symptomatic. Admittedly this is challenging given the scarcity of medical facilities. But the government must set up separate facilities in existing buildings that are empty on an emergency basis as other countries have done to accommodate the growing numbers of patients infected with the virus. Meanwhile other hospitals should be able to treat regular patients without the possibility of staff or patients contracting COVID-19. Patients requiring critical care must not be turned away under any circumstances.