'We have beds, but no doctors': Bengaluru doctor's plea to fight Covid goes viral

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, July 7

A Bengaluru doctor's passionate plea to fellow doctors to join him and his colleagues to fight the deadly pandemic is going viral.

A clip from HBS hospital in Shivajinagar has been circulating online and several messaging platforms.

"Doctors and Nursing Staff required IMMEDIATELY Contact Dr Shariq," reads the caption.

In the video, Dr Taha Mateen said: "I speak from the ICU of HBS Hospital. It’s been a virtual bloodbath. I came in the morning at like 7:30 in the morning and its 12’o’clock midnight right now. Patients are continuously calling me now ‘cause their fathers are breathless, their brothers are breathless and they cannot find a room in Bengaluru and at this time if you see there is one Mr Shiva and me. There is no other doctor willing to work in this hospital. I have beds, I have oxygen beds, I have ventilators, I have all the equipment. I have another 30 beds like this but I don’t have doctors working here. I find them on WhatsApp. I need 6 hours of your time in a day. Please this is my fervent request. This is the time to show we care. Sometimes the army is in the frontline, sometimes the fire people are in the frontline, sometimes the police is in the frontline. Right now, you and I, my fellow doctors, are in the frontline, let us show that we care for humanity.”

In conversation with The News Minutes, they revealed that need at least 48 doctors. After the video was released, they received calls from 5-6 doctors.