Part 1: What’s the Reason Behind Dearth of Hospital Beds in Delhi?

Social media platforms like Twitter are abuzz with multiple incidents of coronavirus positive patients, or people with other ailments, or even expecting women having to run between pillar to post, shuttling from one hospital to another only to be told that there is no availability of beds, or even ambulances. On 4th June, a Delhi-based twitter user by the name of Amandeep had tweeted, “My dad is having high fever. We need to shift him to a hospital. I am standing outside LNJP Delhi & they are not taking him in. He is having coronavirus, high fever and breathing problems. He won’t survive without help. Pls help. (sic)” This is not a lone incident of a patient not finding a hospital bed in Delhi. There are many such accounts from Mumbai, too. While the total tally in Mumbai have crossed over 50,000 cases, in Delhi it’s close to touching the 30 thousandth mark. So, how has the pandemic has affected India’s two biggest and crowded cities – Delhi and Mumbai – the national capital and the financial capital? How prepared are the health sectors in these states in terms of hospital beds, ventilators and other facilities? Have the infrastructures come under pressure with the rising number of cases? In this two-part podcast, we deep dive into a city-wise case study. Tune into the first part of The Big Story where we look at the situation in Delhi! Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha Guest: Vaishali Sood, Editor, Quint Fit Editor: Shelly Walia Music: Big Bang Fuzz Listen to The Big Story podcast on: Apple: https://apple.co/2AYdLIl Saavn: http://bit.ly/2oix78C Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/2ntMV7S Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IyLAUQ Deezer: http://bit.ly/2Vrf5Ng Castbox: http://bit.ly/2VqZ9ur Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices