Noida govt hospital sends back man with COVID-19 symptoms with paracetamol, claims family

A man in Noida has developed symptoms for coronavirus but a government hospital here has denied treatment and multiple calls to helpline numbers over the past few days have also yielded no results, his brother claimed on Friday.

The 27-year-old resident of Sector 30 had consulted doctors at a private hospital in the city after he falling ill, his elder brother said, adding now they are trying to go to Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia hospital using personal contacts.

Phone calls and text messages to the Gautam Buddh Nagar district magistrate and the chief medical officer by PTI for their response went unanswered.

"The private hospital has suggested that we should go for the coronavirus test and that their doctors will no longer be able to see us. We have been trying to get help through the various helpline numbers in Gautam Buddh Nagar over the last four-five days, but in vain," the elder brother, 28, told PTI.

"We were told on the helpline that somebody would reach out to us, but nobody did. We sought an ambulance so that we could go to any hospital and go for COVID-19 testing on our own but nobody is helping us," he alleged.

The district administration had launched round-the-clock helplinenumbers807662361, 6396776904 (health department) and 0120-2569901 (Noida administration) to provide help to the people but these numbers are not effective, he said.

The brother, an art teacher, said after a lot of effort and help from a city-based journalist they got an ambulance from the 108 service on Friday which took them to a government hospital in Sector 30.

"The helpline numbers in Gautam Buddh Nagar don't work most of the time. Once through, I told them the patient is in a critical condition and needs immediate help. The call attenders are polite but they are not able to provide any solution. Getting an ambulance was also difficult because ambulance drivers said they need order from superiors before attending any call," the journalist, who wished not to be named, said.

The brother of the patient, a chef by profession, claimed, "Today, we went to one of the designated hospitals for COVID-19 cases but the officials there wanted my brother to have a paracetamol and go home. They are not ready to examine him or guide us to a place where he can get treated. We came back walking from the hospital... Now we don't know what to do now."