Shocking BBMP ICU Bed Scam In Bengaluru | How 5,000 Beds Were Black-Marketed
5 May, 2021 | Ojasvi Chauhan
One of the person from the nexus would contact a needy person who desperately wants a bed in a hospital, take cash from him for the bed they show blocked and allot the bed to the person. These beds...
Amid growing number of cases of Remdesivir counterfeiting and black marketing, a case where blocked beds were sold to the needy at a much higher price has emerged in Bangalore. With a massive surge in Coronavirus infections in Bangalore, it is close to impossible to find an ICU beds in the city, in such times, a nexus of people has been exposed by Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya.
In Bangalore, BU codes are generated for every person who tests positive and Bangalore is witnessing over 20,000 cases per day, but not all patients require hospitals, most of them are home-isolated . The nexus of people working in BBMP war rooms had access to these BU codes, they would pick-up random 5,000-6,000 BU numbers and would block beds in their names and, black-market these beds. These beds get blocked for 12-hours, so the gang would get 12 hours to black-market the bed and in case, the bed is not marketed, it would get unlocked automatically after 12 hours.
One of the person from the nexus would contact a needy person who desperately wants a bed in a hospital, take cash from him for the bed they show blocked and allot the bed to the person. These beds were sold at extremely high prices and the price range depended on the status of the hospital were the person in need takes the bed. Out of total 25,000-30,000 beds in Bangalore, 5,000 such beds were black-marketed in the last 5 days.
BBMP war rooms were set up a year ago to accommodate patients. Several MLAs and MPs were trying to arrange beds for people reaching out to them but whenever they would call these BBMP war rooms or coordinators, they would always report being short of beds. This led to the MLAs and MPs probing deeper into the situation.
Devastating instances of people running such scams and making money out of someone else’s emergency have been surfacing and, these scams are even leading to deaths of people in some instances.
IMPORTANT Addressing issues of irregularities and anomalies in BBMP bed booking for covid patients in Bengaluru along with Bommanahalli MLA Shri. Satish Reddy, Basavanagudi MLA Shri. Ravi Subramanya and Chickpet MLA Shri. Uday Garudachar. https://t.co/mzjjiQq7AP
— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) May 4, 2021