5,000 hospital beds to be Covid-ready in Telangana

HYDERABAD: A massive exercise to scale up government hospital beds with oxygen supply has been planned in the state, keeping in line with the Centre's directive for ensuring that a majority of the hospital beds in government hospitals are equipped to handle Covid-19 cases. The state is targeting 5,000 beds across various levels of state-run hospitals for the upgrade and identification of hospitals has begun for the purpose.
Oxygen support is required for treating about 10-15 per cent of Covid-19 patients. As the virus attacks the respiratory system, it leads to dangerously low levels of oxygen in the body, which in turn can trigger cardiac and neurological disturbances. Moreover, a majority of the patients are treated with just oxygen supply. “For patients with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI), having respiratory distress may require, pulse oxymetry, oxygen therapy, non-invasive and invasive ventilator therapy,” as per the GOI document on containment plan of Covid-19.
“We have identified over 20,000 beds in Hyderabad in all district hospitals, all teaching hospitals and private medical colleges for treatment of Covid-19 patients. While these will be used to treat symptomatic patients as per the new policy of the Centre, we are now preparing some beds in Primary Health Centres (PHC), Community Health Centres (CHC) district hospitals, area hospitals and teaching hospitals to be fitted with oxygen supply. Around 5,000-6,000 are being targeted,” said a senior official from the state health department.
Elaborating further on the plan, the official said that beds will be planned for upgradation in a manner that it’s not required to shift critical patients to tertiary hospitals.