Ambulance drivers highlight their struggle along with relatives of Covid patients while admitting to city hospitals

Aurangabad, April 27:

There are hundreds of ambulances in the district, which are engaged in transporting serious Covid-19 patients from various parts of the district to the city, daily for treatment. However, the ambulance drivers grieved that they had to either wait for several hours in front of private hospitals to get admission or rush to other hospitals if the admission is refused due to non-availability of oxygen facilities or ventilators or beds in ICU, etc.

There are 338 ambulances serving in the district. To understand their situation, the newspaper spoke to three ambulance drivers at GMCH and two private hospitals. These three ambulances transport 13 Covid patients daily from surrounding places of the district to the city.

Daily four trips

Suresh Pandure said," I bring Covid patients from Gangapur in my ambulance and completes four trips daily. It takes 45 minutes to reach here from Gangapur. The patient is dropped at GMCH or other private hospitals. Sometimes, I had to wait for several hours at a stretch in front of private hospitals for admission. If the admission is refused due to non-availability of bed then I rush the patients to the other hospital as per the directions of the relatives. The reasons for

refusing admissions is mostly due non-availability of oxygen and ventilators."

Daily five trips

Rajiv Shrisunder said, " I prefer in shifting a patient, who is already undergoing treatment but has to be shifted to another hospital. I complete five trips daily. The relatives do not share reasons for shifting an admitted patient from one hospital to another. However, I try my best to provide help in every possible way. Now, I do not fear while doing the job."

Daily four trips

Sopan Gunjal said," I bring patients from Newasa to Aurangabad and complete four trips daily. The relatives, prior to shifting, obtain assurance or stay in touch with the authorities of hospitals in the city, where the patient is going to be admitted. Sometimes, there emerge many problems in getting admission due to non-availability of oxygen, ventilator, etc in the respective hospital. Hence the patient had to shift to another hospital at the eleventh hour."

The status of total beds (and vacant beds) in the hospitals treating the Coronavirus infected patients in the city is as follows:

District Civil Hospital - 300 (93) ; MGM Hospital - 552 (76) ; SN Dhoot Hospital - 150 (25) ; Medicover Hospital - 75 (0) ; Orion City Care - 43 (0) ; United Ciigma Hospital - 150 (0) ; Life Multispeciality Hospital - 44 (20) ; Ashish Hospital - 40 (5) ; Max Care Hospital - 16 (1) ; New Life Child Hospital - 10 (0) ; Lifeline Multispeciality Hospital - 75 (10) ; Sumanjali Hospital - 40 (9) and

Gajanan Hospital - 60 (0).