VTV Special / EXCLUSIVE: Corona patients would not have been robbed in a private hospital if it was a gift from the Gujarat government.
In the second wave of Corona, the medical infrastructure of Gujarat came to a standstill. Research on why patients had to endure so much in such a difficult time and why millions had to pay bills in private hospitals found that private hospitals in the state are 15 times more than government hospitals and the number of government beds is alarmingly low.
The year 2014, the year in the history of India that set a record in India. For the first time, a non-Congress party formed a government with an absolute majority. However, this victory was neither of the BJP nor of Prime Minister Modi, this was the victory of the 'Gujarat Model'. The same Gujarat model that the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi played in the Lok Sabha elections. However, the Gujarat model that brought the BJP to power with record seats collapsed like a palace of cards in the battle against Korona.
Why did Gujarat's health system flop in Corona? Did all this happen suddenly? Why 'Gujarat Model' could not become 'Health Model'? To know the answers to the above questions, it is necessary to understand both the pre-Corona state of Gujarat and the Corona time state.
There was no pal before the water
If we look at the condition of government hospitals in some states of India till January 1, 2020, the day before the day Corona appeared in China, we will realize how much the Gujarat model depended on the private sector in the field of health.
(Note: * The number of beds in the states is up to the year 2017. The number of beds in these states is likely to be even higher than what is written here in 2019)
The above figures are from before the introduction of Corona virus in India. It can be clearly seen that even before the advent of Corona, Gujarat's public health sector was far behind. Most of it was privatized here. That is why Gujarat had only 63 beds more than a backward state like Bihar.
Having 5 hospital beds for every 1000 citizens is a sign of a good health system
According to WHO, having 5 hospital beds for every 1000 citizens is a sign of a good health system. Unfortunately, even before the epidemic, there was a situation in Gujarat where only 0.45 government beds were available for every 1000 citizens of the state. In other words, even half a bed was not available among every thousand citizens in Gujarat. It is not known whether the healthcare system was developed in Gujarat as per the guidelines of WHO.
What was the situation like in the second wave?
In the affidavit filed by the Gujarat government in the High Court, important figures related to Kovid Hospital and beds have been given. There are a total of 1203 Dedicated Covid Hospitals (DCHs) across the state as of May 1, according to the data. These hospitals have a total of 63026 beds. This bed figure does not include Dedicated Covid Health Center (DCHC) and Covid Care Center (CCC) beds.
Double the number of private bods against the governmentThere are more than 63 thousand beds in a total of 1203 hospitals in the state. Of these, 73 hospitals are government and 1130 are private. Thus the number of private hospitals is 15 times more than the government hospitals in the state.
