New Delhi, May 1 (IANS): A 34-year-old man here lost his life outside Lok Nayak Hospital as doctors refused to admit him due to non-availability of beds.

Mohammed Qasim took his last breath outside the hospital on Friday after he was brought in an ambulance by his wife and his neighbours but he hadn't been able to get a Covid test despite he had symptoms.

The guards let the ambulance in but doctors couldn't admit him right away. Within 10 minutes, Qasim started coughing and collapsed under the sun. The deceased wife Rubina screamed for help as he breathed his last. Other families came to the entrance and shouted: "At least get him an oxygen cylinder."

Doctors later tried to revive Qasim but couldn't. Qasim's body was taken back to his home in Rohini.

As hospital staffers put her husband's body inside the ambulance, Rubina said: "I have lost everything. We have been searching for a hospital bed since yesterday. We were told people were discharged from here, there could be beds. We couldn't even get tested for Covid. How will I tell my children that their father is dead?"

Like Qasim several patients are not getting beds in various government as well as private hospitals due to shortage of beds. Helpless, they sat outside hospitals and wait. Many of them had already been refused beds and oxygen cylinders elsewhere in the city.