No stretcher, Covid patient biked out of Jharkhand hospital ward

PATNA: The ferocity of the second wave COVID-19 has left India desperate for medical resources. Thousands have been gasping for oxygen while others are still looking for a hospital bed to lie down on. Several medical centres have run out of essential drugs and vaccines. One such facility in Jharkhand has seemingly run out of even stretchers -- so much so that one patient was even wheeled out of a ward on a scooter.

A video of the dire conditions at Palamu's Medinirai Medical College and Hospital (MMCH) is doing the rounds on social media and messaging apps.

It shows three young men helping a frail, elderly man onto the scooter from inside a ward at the hospital. He is then taken away from there, sandwiched between two persons on the vehicle.

It is unclear whether he was discharged by the doctors or was taken to another hospital.

An important medical centre of the region, several questions are now being raised against the administration of Palamu's MMCH.

Many top hospitals of the country, however, find themselves in such a situation given the quantum of patients' influx in the past few weeks. India has reported over three lakh fresh COVID-19 cases every day and more than 2,000 deaths in recent days.