UP: Covid becomes big business for hospitals, chemists; black-marketing rampant despite govt claims

Mudassar Ahmad, 62, has symptoms of Covid on Tuesday night. He went for Covid test the next day andthe same day quarantined himself in the first floor of his house in Indira Nagar locality of Lucknow.  He did not wait for the test report and started medication as suggested by the government. On Friday, he got a report and was tested positive.

His son Zameer started looking for a bed in the hospital. “A private hospital said that they have a bed but will charge Rs 15,000 per bed. I agreed and admitted my father to that private nursing home. On Saturday, I got a call from the hospital that it does not have oxygen and I should arrange for one cylinder. I was aghast. The private hospital which was charging Rs 15,000 per night but did not have an oxygen cylinder,” Zameer said.

He bought a cylinder for Rs 15,000 from a private company in Alambagh and took it to the hospital so that his father could recuperate.

As Uttar Pradesh continues to singe under Covid fire, many people have turned this catastrophe into a business. Price of medicine, beds, oxygen cylinders have gone up exponentially. Despite Government’s claims that hoarders would be punished, the black-marketing of medicines is rampant.

After the son-in law of Narendra Saxena, a government employee, was admitted in a hospital, he received a call from the doctor telling him that the patient needs Ramdesivir injection. “The injection is out of stock in market. I bought four vials of the injections at Rs 8000 per vial. The doctor said they need two more vials. The fifth vial I bought at Rs 11,000 and the sixth at Rs 16,000,” Saxena said.

The MRP of the Ramsedivir injection, which Mr Saxena bought was Rs 4500 per vial.

“I wonder what will happen to the poor people for whom even paying Rs 4500 per injection vial is bit on higher side. Surely, they cannot afford Rs 16,000,” he said.

But in this time of urgency, some are forced to scratch the bottom of their pockets or borrow money from their relatives or neighbours or sell wife’s ornaments so that they can save their loved ones.

One Yogesh Dixit, was forced to buy an oxygen cylinder at Rs 12,000 per cylinder for his ailing father because the state-run Lohia Hospital in Lucknow did not have oxygen. I had to go to Alambagh, almost 20 kms from Lohia Hospital in Gomti Nagar to get the Oxygen cylinder.

“I bought two cylinders, one as a reserve, because the doctors can ask for another oxygen cylinder anytime,” Yogesh said.

But how did he arrange the money to buy the cylinders?

“I sold my wife’s ornaments,” he said before rushing into the ward of the hospital.

The plight of patients' relatives is visible everywhere across the state. The patients are not getting beds and many of them have died gasping for breath outside hospital gates because they were denied entry. Many who managed to get beds are facing the wrath of hoarders.

"It is a crime against humanity and no one dealing in the hoarding and black-marketing of Covid-19 medicines should be spared,” said Kalpana Chaudhry, who was struggling to get Ivermectin tablets as chemist told her it is out of stock but is available on a premium.

Rajendra Kumar, a Chemist said that they are getting costly medicines now from the wholesalers but customers believe that the chemists are charging a high price. “What can we do bhai sahib? We have no option,” he said.

People are making death too a profit-making business now. In Varanasi, Rs 11,000 is being charged for cremation of a Covid body against normal charge of Rs 4000. The excuse is – the wood is expensive now.