A survey conducted on access to ICU beds, by website Local Circles, has found that 4 per cent of the respondents were able to get an ICU bed through routine process while the rest had to use contacts and clout. As many as 211 districts have been covered by this survey in which 17,000 responses were received. Of all the patients contacted, 38 per cent said they had to use clout or connections to get an ICU bed. About 7 per cent said they had to follow up extensively to secure an ICU bed. Roughly 7 per cent even paid a bribe to get a bed, while only 4 per cent faced no problems. 92 per cent of the respondents said that it should be mandatory for hospitals to post and upgrade realtime COVID-19 ICU bed availability.
