Pune: Retired scientist dies for want of ICU bed with ventilator; probe assured

PUNE: A 61-year-old retired scientist, former in-charge of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Pune branch, failed to get admitted to the isolated intensive care unit (ICU) of a private hospital on the Pune-Ahmednagar road and died hours later at the state-run Sassoon hospital on Wednesday.
The Vishrantwadi resident had complained of fever and breathlessness and required a ventilator-supported ICU bed. His family members said they could neither get the bed at the private hospital nor at Sassoon hospital as the available beds were occupied. This is the fourth death in the city in the last few weeks where the relatives had to search futilely for ICU beds in hospitals.

Many designated hospitals are currently running at maximum capacity. With the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) adding 800-1,000 fresh Covid-19 cases daily, the stressed health infrastructure and the seeming lack of planning and coordination between the district administration and the designated private hospitals have badly inconvenienced patients and their families.
The retired scientist’s brother-in-law, S Madhavan, said, “Precious hours were lost in our anxious search for an ICU bed. He could have survived if he had got admitted in time. He had no underlying medical conditions.”
The private hospital on Ahmednagar road said the man was referred to the hospital by a general practitioner for a chest X-ray. “However, he started feeling breathless and required isolation ICU as he was suspected to have contracted Covid-19. We provided oxygen support and administered an injection to stabilize him,” the administration told TOI.
“We tried searching for bed in other branches of our hospital as well as in other hospitals. He was referred to Sassoon hospital against the advice of his general practitioner. Our ambulance transferred him with oxygen and medical support,” the administration said.
The family was in for a shock at Sassoon hospital as all the ICU beds were occupied there too. “We tried to contact many other private hospitals over the phone. But none had a vacant ICU bed," Madhavan said. The Sassoon medical staff tried to maintain him on basic oxygen support but he succumbed to respiratory complications around 2 am. He tested positive for Covid-19.
The Sassoon administration said, “ All 44 ICU beds were full. In fact, there were a few other patients who were also breathless and were being maintained on oxygen support as there were no ICU beds. There is a daily wait for ICU beds. We are hiring medical staff and planning to increase ICU beds. Raising infrastructure is easy but we need a skilled workforce to run it.”
Pune city Congress committee spokesperson Ramesh Iyer, a family friend of the patient, criticised the district administration for poor planning and poor utilization of existing resources.“The district administration should create a dedicated helpline and use mass media tools to popularise the helpline number. It must also put a mechanism in place to fix responsibility,” he said.
Pune Municipal Corporation additional commissioner Rubal Agarwal said ward-level officers have been empowered to file FIRs against erring hospitals. “The ward medical officer concerned will conduct an inquiry and take action.We have given show-cause notices to 25 hospitals for reasons like admission refusal and overcharging,” she said.
Pune district collector Naval Kishore Ram assured probe in the case. “Strict action will be taken against erring hospitals not updating the availability of data on the dashboard software in real time,” he said.