Sarla Vyas, a resident of Damoh in Madhya Pradesh, died of Covid-19 at a private hospital on April 14. When his son Rajesh Vyas approached the hospital for the death certificate, the hospital administration refused to have any entry of his mother’s death due to Covid-19. Even after one and half month, the hospital administration didn’t release her death certificate with the exact cause of death, HT has learnt.
Vyas is not the only one with such an experience, in many districts, people are facing hardships in getting death certificates of their loved ones who succumbed to Covid-19. Many hospital administrations refuse to have any record of the deaths.
Aman Jadhav, who hails from Bhopal, has been running pillar to post to get the death certificate of his mother Shashi Jadhav, 40, who died of Covid-19 at JP Hospital in Bhopal on April 18.
“I visit the hospital daily but the hospital administration didn’t have any record of my mother’s death. Now, how will I get a death certificate from a municipal corporation?” said Jadhav.
Not only this, it is learnt that some hospitals are releasing misleading death certificates by mentioning the cause of death as some illness, cardiac arrest or some other, family members allege.
“My 46-year-old brother died of Covid-19 on April 17. The hospital issued a death certificate without mentioning the cause of death. My brother has four kids and we are not financially stable to take care of them. The state government announced compensation against the death of Covid-19 patients but how will we prove that my brother died of Covid-19?” said Manish Pardesia, who hails from Khandwa.
A resident of Bhopal, Shawar Jama said, “I lost my father due to Covid-19 but the hospital handed over the death certificate stating that he died of cardiac arrest. I requested them to correct it but the hospital administration said they can’t change their record.”
Experts say these are some of the examples proving that Covid-19 deaths data is being fudged.
Jan Swasthya Abhiyan member SR Azaad said, “People are facing trauma and trouble due to missing or misleading records of the hospitals. Now, hospitals are also taking advantage of the state government’s lack of transparency in maintaining the records. As the state government was mainly dependent upon private hospitals for the treatment of Covid-19 patients, they can’t take action against them.”
Amulya Nidhi, another health activist, who is constantly fighting for health rights, said, “According to the MP health department, as many as 7,758 people died of Covid-19 since April last year but the records of crematorium and graveyards registered 10 times more death in the state.”
“Most of the Covid-19 patients, including the VIPs, ministers and officers, are going to private hospitals for their treatment as the state government relies more on private health facilities than the public ones. Now, private hospitals and the state government are partners in the crime of fudging data,” Nidhi said.
Medical colleges’ association president JN Chauksey said, “A panel of doctor decides the cause of death in every hospital. But this is a bitter fact that 50% of Covid-19 patients died of cardiac arrest due to fear of the disease. Death due to fear and cardiac arrest can’t be written as death due to complications of Covid 19.”
Department of medical education minister Vishwas Sarang said, “We have not received any such complaints of missing records and wrong entry of cause of death. If we receive any complaint, we will act accordingly.”
