Even as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the city, complaints of insufficient ICU beds
have started to resurface with patients struggling to find one. Even though 27 smaller private hospitals have been allowed to start admitting COVID-19 patients from September 15, corporators and social workers feel more of those should be roped in to improve access to critical care. However, some corporators said that patients with severe symptoms prefer private hospitals, but they were being turned away.

FOR Prashant Soni, 31, the ordeal started on September 8 when his 52-year-old father tested positive and he ended up admitting him in a hospital in Malad that still doesn't have permission to treat COVID patients. "My father's oxygen saturation has been at 85 per cent for several days and despite being in the ICU, his condition is not improving. I have been trying to shift him to another hospital but I cannot find a bed anywhere," he said.