Authors
A widely-shared video shows a massive crowd gathered outside what claims to be the OPD department of Victoria Hospital in Bangalore.
We found the above video to be widely circulating on Whatsapp and Twitter in the recent past. In the video, a man who claims to be a doctor can be heard saying,
“Ma’am this is the amount of rush we’re getting in room #5 OPD ground floor. Looking at the amount of patients here, it is a complete threat to all the doctors and staff of the hospital including the patients. So that’s why I am forwarding this video to you ma’am. This is Dr Rana Singh here. Please take a immediate action as soon as possible. Thank you.”
Below is another example of this claim posted on 18 July:
Others claim this video to be from AIIMS Patna. See an example of this below:
Fact Check/ Verification
Through a relevant keyword search on Google we came across an NDTV news report which states that the person who posted the video allegedly showing Bangalore’s Victoria hospital OPD was arrested for false attribution of the video and its potential to create panic in society.
The above report includes Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao’s tweet debunking the claim.
The same day Bengaluru’s Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Sandeep Patil, warned of false videos about conditions in a Bangalore hospital circulating on social media via a tweet.
Another tweet posted by Bangalore Mirror on 18 July clarifies that the video is not from Bangalore’s Victoria Hospital.
On further research we found India Today’s fact check tweet posted on 20 July attributing the video in context to Patna’s Mahavir Cancer Sansthan.
Browsing through Mahavir Cancer Sansthan’s website we found Dr Rana Singh’s name listed as an Oncology resident in the Chemotherapy Department.
You can read news reports related to this claim here, here and here.
We’ve reached out to Dr. Singh for confirmation on this video. We will update the copy if or when we hear from him.
Conclusion
The video in context is not from Bangalore’s Victoria Hospital OPD. It was taken by Dr Rana Singh, resident oncologist at Mahavir Cancer Sansthan in Patna.
Result: Misplaced Context
Our Sources
NDTV news report: https://www.ndtv.com/bangalore-news/victoria-hospital-fake-video-of-crowded-bengaluru-covid-19-hospital-goes-viral-1-arrested-2265417
Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao’s tweet: https://twitter.com/deepolice12/status/1284812868207013889?s=20
Bengaluru’s Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Sandeep Patil tweet: https://twitter.com/ips_patil/status/1284725499307204610?s=20
Bangalore Mirror: https://twitter.com/BangaloreMirror/status/1284435230644858880?s=20
India Today: https://twitter.com/IndiaToday/status/1285093026721787904?s=20
Mahavir Cancer Sansthan: https://www.mahavircancersansthan.com/OurteamMedicalteam.html
The News Minute: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/fact-check-viral-video-crowd-not-bengaluru-s-victoria-hospital-129000
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