Only 4 per cent of people in the country who needed an ICU bed for Covid-19 treatment were able to get it through the routine process, while 78 per cent had to use connections and clout, a survey has revealed.After receiving many complaints from citizens from across the country about their family friends or associates not being able to find an ICU bed at a government or private hospital, LocalCircles decided to conduct a survey to get citizen pulse on the issue and received over 17,000 responses from citizens located in over 211 districts of the country.In the first question, LocalCircles asked citizens about the experiences of people in their social network in regard to getting a Covid-19 ICU bed.
To ensure that the right feedback is sought, citizens were requested to make calls to their contacts in case they were unaware themselves about the detailed experience of their contact in getting an ICU bed.In response, 55 per cent citizens said that they did not have any person in their network who needed a Covid ICU bed.
These respondents were taken out of the sample to only analyse experiences of citizens who had someone in their network needing a Covid-19 bed.When this sample was analysed, 38 per cent respondents said they had to use clout or connections to secure the ICU bed, while 7 per cent said they had to follow up extensively to secure the ICU bed.40 per cent said that they had to use their clout or connections, follow up extensively and they also had to escalate via social media or complain to the government to secure the ICU bed.7 per cent said they had to bribe (cash or kind) hospital/government officials to secure the ICU bed, while only 4 per cent said they got the ICU bed without any of the above.In Delhi for instance, patients complained that the Delhi government's app Delhi Corona shows ICU bed available in some hospitals, however, when they call that hospital they are told that the bed is not available.The Delhi government also recently asked 33 big private hospitals in the state to reserve 80 per cent of their total ICU beds for Covid-19 patients, however, if that will actually be implemented by the hospitals remains to be seen as an association of healthcare providers said that it would challenge the order in the high court because such a move would hamper the treatment of non Covid patients with critical ailments.In the next question, citizens were asked given the ICU beds shortage for Covid-19, should it be made mandatory for all hospitals to list on their websites and entrances the real time ICU bed availability.
A whopping 92 per cent citizens responded in its favour while only 7 per cent voted against it.LocalCircles will submit a copy of this report to senior members of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the chief secretaries of all states for their urgent consideration.Survey Demographics17,000+ responses were received across 211 districts of India.
65 per cent respondents were men while 35 per cent respondents were women.
52 per cent respondents were from tier 1, 26 per cent from tier 2 and 22 per cent respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.They survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform and all participants are validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.The number of Covid-19 cases in India have crossed 55 lakh and the country has been recording on average over 90,000 cases daily for the last two weeks.
It took just 11 days for the last 10 lakh recorded cases of coronavirus.
Many experts have said that the second wave of Covid-19 has already hit the country and that is why the daily caseload has shot up.