Covid can ‘attract’ bouncers. That is what a private hospital in Bengaluru has proved.
With hospitals facing heated arguments over beds between staff and patients’ families, several private hospitals in Bengaluru have scaled up security to ensure protection for their employees and infrastructure.
One hospital took a step too far. Prakriya Hospitals, located on the outskirts of Bengaluru, had hired bouncers for staff protection to keep trouble-makers at bay. “We had to resort to this for a while. Patients’ relatives become violent when we inform them that no beds are available for Covid patients. It’s tough. Patients coming in the last stages — some with life-support systems — do not survive. In such cases, patients’ families fail to understand any medical explanation we offer,” Dr Srinivas Chirukuri, CEO of the hospital, was quoted in the media.
But soon the hospital realised that the bouncers were proving too costly. They had to shell down up to Rs 3 lakh a month to hire two of them in three shifts. This forced the hospital to discontinue with the bouncers.
Meanwhile, the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes’ Association has asked the government to depute one police personnel to every private hospital to ensure security.
“I do not know about bouncers, but most hospitals have scaled up security as there have been instances of crowd gathering, holding threat to healthcare workers and hospital properties,” Dr HM Prasanna, president-elect, Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes’ Association (Phana), was quoted in the media.
In a few cases, relatives broke the glass façade of hospitals or destroyed furniture following the death of their relative due to Covid. In one instance, relatives created a ruckus and upset normal functioning of a hospital as they wanted a waiver of the bill since the patient had died.
Meanwhile, on the Covid front, Karnataka reported 8477 cases on Thursday, taking the active number of cases to 1,13,538 and overall caseload to beyond 7.4 lakh. The state also recorded 85 deaths, taking the toll to 10,283.
Bengaluru recorded 3,788 new cases and among districts, Mysuru, Hassanna, Bengaluru Rural, and Dakshina Kannada reported over 300 cases.
