Clock ticks as boy finds no ICU bed in govt hospitals: Father pleads for help as medical bills mount | Delhi News

NEW DELHI: A festive afternoon of kite flying on Aug 19 turned into a nightmare for 12-year-old Rishabh Singh Parihar, who slipped from the first floor of his house and has been battling for life in a private hospital, with his parents unable to find a ventilator bed for him in any govt hospital in the city despite repeated visits.Rishabh’s father, Dipender Singh, a daily-wage labourer, is caught between mounting medical bills and the absence of support in govt hospitals. “Doctors told me my son was in a critical condition. They said I cannot move him unless I find a ventilator bed elsewhere,” Singh told TOI in a downcast voice. “I earn just a few thousand rupees a month. We have already borrowed money from relatives and spent Rs 2 lakh so far. We don’t know how long we can keep this going.” “Govt hospitals are not assuring us of an ICU bed. We feel trapped,” despaired Singh, adding that when at some hospitals, they were asked to bring the patient but without any guarantee he would be admitted. “What happens if I take my son there but he doesn’t get a ventilator?” he asked. The ordeal began at Safdarjung Hospital immediately after the accident. Doctors conducted a CT scan, provided first aid and discharged the boy with medicines. A few days later, when Rishabh began complaining of severe headache, nosebleeds and vomiting, the family rushed him back to hospital. “They gave him one injection on Aug 23 and asked us to get another CT done. But the queue was very long. When we pleaded with the doctors to see him urgently, they kept asking us to first get the scan done,” a harried Singh said. The parents admitted the boy the same day to Shree Aggarsain International Hospital in Rohini, where he battles for life. The family tried Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini on Aug 25 and on Aug 28, only to be turned away both times. “After looking at the records of our son, they told us treatment couldn’t be done here and asked us to take him to hospitals like GB Pant or Safdarjung,” Singh said. When contacted, Ambedkar Hospital’s medical director, Dr Meenakshi, claimed, “All the ventilators we have are occupied by patients. We will let you know when one becomes available.” Safdarjung Hospital administration did not respond to queries. Rishabh’s struggle highlights a crisis that thousands face in Delhi every year: the huge shortage of ICU beds and ventilators in govt hospitals. Ashok Agarwal, member of the Delhi High Court-appointed free beds inspection committee and the amicus curiae in the case, said govt hospitals in the city once had around 4% ICU beds, many of them non-functional. “The court directed them to earmark at least 10% of the beds as ICU or ventilator beds, but that target has still not been met,” he said. As per Delhi’s state health policy, 5-7% of hospital beds are to be reserved for ICUs and ventilators, but there clearly is a big shortfall. Addressing this shortage, health minister Pankaj Singh told the Assembly in March that govt would add more critical care facilities. He admitted that procurement of ventilators was uneven: while 400 ventilators were inducted at the peak of the Covid pandemic in 2021, only seven were added in 2024 and none so far this year. Between 2014 and 2025, 646 ventilators were procured. Recently, Delhi govt’s health secretary told the high court that once the hospital management information system (HMIS) was fully implemented, ICU bed availability would be flagged in real time and a system-wide solution placed on record.