In a shocking incident of medical apathy, a government doctor in Karnataka died after he was turned away by three private hospitals because he could not produce a coronavirus test result.
Dr Manjunath who was himself a COVID-19 frontline health worker was refused admission by hospitals in the city when his health condition was reportedly deteriorating. He was struggling to breathe.
According to reports, the 50-year-old doctor was on COVID-19 duty at Chikkamudavadi Primary Health Centre in Kanakapura taluk, Ramanagara district which is around 50 km from Bengaluru.
Dr Manjunath went to Rajashekhar Hospital in JP Nagar, BGS Global Hospital in Kengeri and Sagar hospital in Kumaraswamy Layout. All three hospitals demanded to see his coronavirus test result but those were still not in at the time, according to his family.
‘It was a suspected case, and he was awaiting his test report. We, doctors, could not get a bed for him in three private hospitals we went to. All three hospitals rejected admission as he didn’t have his COVID-19 test report,’ Dr Nagendra, Manjunath’s brother-in-law told The Times of India.
He was finally admitted to Sagar hospital on June 25 when his family protested for medical treatment outside the Dayananda Sagar campus, reported NDTV.
He was then placed on a ventilator and later shifted to the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, where he died earlier today.
D Randeep, a Special Officer with the Bengaluru municipal body BBMP, told media that the hospitals that had refused to admit the doctor would be reported to the health department.
Amid rising cases, Bengaluru has also reported cases of patients being turned away from hospitals in the city. Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has recently ordered the private hospitals to provide 50 per cent of beds to COVID patients.
But this is the first incident where a doctor, engaged with the city’s municipal body, failed to get admission to a private hospital.
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