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Sitting on a pavement, an old man struggling for breath, his son and another relative watching anxiously and helplessly. Within the campus of Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, one of the Delhi government's nodal COVID-19 facilities. The son says doctors at the hospital have refused to test his father for COVID-19. They are also refusing to explain why.
The Quint decided to do a ground reality check at GTB Hospital, speaking to several patients' relatives on the hospital campus. What we found was discouraging. Many relatives complained about a lack of compassion and non-cooperation from GTB's doctors and healthcare staff.
Patients' relatives say they are also worried about the quality of medical treatment at GTB hospital.
Relatives also claimed that suspected COVID-19 patients were not being kept in isolation while waiting for the test results. They feared that in such a situation a patient could catch the infection inside the hospital.
The problems do not end here.
The Delhi government app showed us that 1,500 beds were available for COVID-19 patients at GTB hospital, but the real number may be much lower.
A very senior GTB Hospital official told The Quint, that currently they actually have 1,000 beds, of which 200 beds are occupied, while 800 beds are available. He also said that all these 200 patients are either on oxygen or ventilators. But he emphasised that the bottleneck was not beds but staff. He said GTB hospital urgently needs more doctors to handle the constantly growing number of patients.
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