Emergency rooms cannot turn away patients

We are appalled by a report in this paper that relates the harrowing tales of family members of critically ill patients who have been denied treatment for hours or simply turned away by emergency wards in both private and public hospitals. The ongoing pandemic has no doubt left hospitals overwhelmed, but in many cases, emergency patients have been made to wait for hours before any kind of medical attention, resulting in death. Hospital staff have even refused to see patients in fear after hearing that they displayed Covid-19 symptoms.

In one instance, a man's mother who had breathing problems and was unconscious, did not receive any kind of medical attention for a few hours after she was taken to the DMCH. Her son was made to wait in line at the emergency ward where there were no doctors to attend his mother. He was also told that he needed a prescription to get an echocardiogram done. By the time she was given oxygen, it was too late. It is shocking and abominable that a patient would be denied emergency treatment because the paperwork had not been done! An official of the DMCH also said that there were no ICU beds available at the hospital. Even Gautum Aich Sarkar, the additional secretary of the Ministry of Food, died after being denied emergency care at eight hospitals because he had a fever.

Emergency wards of hospitals turning away critically ill patients, no matter what symptoms they are displaying, is just not acceptable and violates all ethical codes that healthcare professionals and hospitals are bound by. This terrible mindset—that patients can be turned away because they might have Covid-19, is morally reprehensible and must be stopped immediately. Patients with other serious ailments such as kidney and heart disease who have needed immediate attention have been turned away as well.

It is clearly the responsibility of the Health Ministry to step in and give clear directives and enforce them strictly, to all hospitals, whether public or private, that they cannot turn away such critical patients no matter what symptoms they display. It is understandable that health professionals are at risk of contracting the virus when they treat patients. Which is why strict safety protocol and necessary protective gear have to be provided to all health professionals and other employees of the hospitals. This should have been ensured weeks ago when the Covid-19 patients were first detected. Hospitals must also employ extra medical staff to deal with emergency patients. The reports of dead patients being left for hours before relatives could see them expose the sheer disrespect for the dead that have reached grotesque proportions in the present crisis. The Health Ministry must, on an urgent basis, provide the resources, guidance, equipment and personnel required to handle emergency patients, as well as to provide dignified treatment of those who do not make it.