AHMEDABAD, MAY 23
We are familiar with William Shakespeare’s quote “What’s in a name?” A lot, says a coronavirus patient in Ahmedabad. A coronavirus positive man was discharged from a civic-run hospital on the basis of a negative report that actually belonged to another person with the same name, officials said on Saturday.
The authorities at civic-run Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital admitted the mistake and issued an apology on Saturday, adding the human error was rectified soon with the wrongly discharged person being brought back and admitted in the facility within hours.
“On Thursday, the hospital received reports of samples of two patients with the same name within a gap of around five hours. The first report the hospital received at around 2 pm was negative for coronavirus, based on which one of the duos was discharged,” the hospital said in a statement.
“However, the report of the sample of the second patient with the same name was received at around 7 pm and it was coronavirus positive. It was only after the second report was received that it was realised the patient discharged in the afternoon had actually tested positive for coronavirus,” the hospital statement added.
On learning about the “human error”, the discharged patient was informed, and an ambulance was immediately rushed to bring him back to the hospital, it said.
The medical team has been directed, in strong words by the hospital management, to take special precaution in such matters, the statement informed.
It also said SVP Hospital had so far treated 4,131 COVID-19 patients.
Till Saturday morning, Ahmedabad city reported 9,577 COVID-19 cases, including 638 deaths. The city currently has 5.190 active cases.
SVP Hospital is a super-specialty public hospital of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee chief ‘unmasks’ state govt for profiteering through N95 masks sale
After raising the issue of the Gujarat government procuring inefficient or substandard ventilators by getting local made machines like Dhaman-1, the Congress on Saturday alleged that the ruling BJP government was profiteering through the sale of N95 masks in a dire situation like Covid-19.
Amit Chavda, the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president, said, “After the Gujarat chief minister carried out a marketing strategy for his Rajkot friend, by endorsing local Ampu pump as ventilator and thereby playing with the precious lives of people during the Corona outbreak, has now come up with profiteering through N95 masks and looting the public.”
“The N95 masks are being sold at Amul parlours across the state, and are being procured by the Gujarat Medical Services Corporation Limited (GMSCL), a government undertaking. The GMSCL had fixed the price of the masks at Rs 49.60 per unit on March 30. Now they are selling the same masks at Rs 65 to the public. Our question to the government is why such profiteering of Rs 15 at a time of crisis like this?” Chavda questioned.
“During such a crisis, when there should be efforts to avail such masks at minimum prices by doing away with the GST on it, the state government is bent on profiteering, why? For whose gain they are doing such things? The Gujarat chief minister should answer this and explain why are they looting the public?,” asked Chavda.
