Bihar's health infrastructure crumbles as cases mount

Two brothers from Patna themselves bought PPE suits and wore them while carrying the body of their father, who succumbed to COVID-19, to the ambulance. Though medical teams have to take care of disposal of bodies, only an ambulance was sent to the deceased's house. In Bihar, the health infrastructure is crumbling as cases continue to surge.

Patna: As the number of coronavirus cases continues to increase in the state, it is imperative to think that health infrastructure has become overwhelmed, even when health minister Mangal Pandey claiming the state's system is the best in the country.

According to the state health department, the death toll has crossed 208 with Patna and Bhagalpur reporting two fatalities each on Wednesday, and Buxar, Arwal, Katihar, Rohtas, Purnea and Saran one each.

But Nitish Kumar's health minister's claim falls flat as Patna district accounted for the maximum 33 deaths so far. Both the deaths in Patna in the last 24 hours were reported from the city's AIIMS.

These include BJP MLC Sunil Singh who breathed his last on the previous night and Rati Raman Jha, the civil surgeon of Samastipur who got admitted to the hospital here a week ago and died early on July 22.

The administration's multifront failure is brought out by ETV Bharat's reportage in which COVID-19 patient's families continue to suffer due to poor and unethical handling of dead bodies.

A sad tale of home isolation

With cases increasing every day and COIVD designated hospitals facing a shortage of beds, many patients with mild symptoms are being advised to self-isolate at home.

But without proper protocols or plan in place, patients continue to suffer in the state capital. On July 23, near police state area, a 50-year-old patient died at 4 am after being in isolation for a few days. Lack of monitoring and man-management has further brought misery to all such families who are losing their loved ones.

After the death of the 50-year-old, families and local residents are urging the administration to make arrangements to carry out a funeral with strict protocols.

Late arrivals or no arrivals

The sons of a COVID victim themselves carried their deceased father's body and placed it inside an ambulance, as no medical team had been sent to their house.

Finally, after struggling for 11 hours, during which the body remained at the deceased's house, an ambulance arrived. However, the ambulance arrived without a medical team.

According to reports, a COVID-19 positive man, who was in home isolation in Patna. The deceased's sons kept calling the authorities to send a medical team to take the body away, but to no avail.

To make matters worse, even the driver was not wearing a PPE kit.

Read:Bihar Health Minister visits Nalanda Medical College and Hospital

In a similar incident, a coronavirus suspect from Nalanda district of Bihar died after Nalanda Medical College and Hospital kept him waiting for three long hours despite his serious health condition.

Later, because of this carelessness, the Bihar government fired the hospital Superintendent Nirmal Kumar Sinha who was found guilty for the incident.

At least 400 nursing staff at the Patna AIIMS have gone on strike, adding to the hospital administration's problems in managing the treatment of patients in this coronavirus crisis situation. The striking non-permanent nurses have a number of demands including job security, increase in salary, health insurance, leave benefits like that of permanent employees.

In order to protect themselves from the infection, Havan-pujas are being organised at many places in Patna. Perhaps it is the right time for the people in Bihar to seek help from Almighty.