COVID patients scramble for beds in western Odisha

Experts say the situation is rapidly deteriorating and its impact will soon be felt on the State’s health infrastructure

Bibek Meher’s search for a COVID bed for his father finally ended after 16 hours when he got one at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar. On April 13, when his father’s oxygen level dipped at Kantabanji in Odisha’s Balangir district, he and his mother scrambled for a bed. He had to inquire at four hospitals during a 600-km restless travel in four western Odisha districts, with his father in an ambulance. He could have easily availed a bed at a government hospital, but there was perhaps lack of centralised information regarding the availability of COVID-19 bed for public.