Amid the raging second wave of Coronavirus, a long queue of ambulances carrying COVID-19 patients was seen waiting outside a Civil Hospital in Rajkot, Gujarat, on Sunday, ANI reported.
This is the second time the Gujarat government has found itself amid such controversy. A long queue of ambulances carrying coronavirus positive patients was earlier seen outside the Civil Hospital in Asarwa area of Ahemdabad.
However, the Gujarat government on Wednesday said that the admission of patients was being carried out as per the protocols which just cannot be discarded. The government had said it was unfair to associate the queue with the efficiency of the Civil Hospital in handling the situation.
During a hearing on the overall pandemic situation in the state, the Gujarat High Court recently observed that "over 40 ambulances were found queued up outside the Civil Hospital". The HC had cited media reports claiming that COVID-19 patients are queuing up in ambulances as beds are not available in any hospitals.
In its reply, the government had told the HC that the queue of ambulances is not a criterion to judge the efficiency of the Civil Hospital. COVID-19 patients waiting in ambulances are admitted to the hospital as per the protocol which cannot be set aside, it said.
"The Civil Hospital is trying its best to save every patient. There is no relation between the queue and the efficiency of the Civil Hospital. We cannot bypass the set protocols just because there is a queue of ambulances," an official release had quoted civil hospital superintendent Dr J V Modi as saying.
Meanwhile, Gujarat reported a record 9,541 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the state's tally to 3,94,229. It also witnessed a single-day fatality peak with 97 deaths within a day while 3,783 people were discharged post recovery.
(With inputs from agencies)
