Pune: Massive shortage of beds, ventilator support for COVID-19 patients; hospitals struggle as dist collector admits to crisis

█ The city has no more beds available for critical care of COVID-19 patients. Ventilator support beds are over, and only a few beds with oxygen support remain. By July 31, a shortfall of 13,696 beds is expected

While the authorities claimed that the 10-day lockdown was a success because they managed to test the maximum number of people and increased bed capacity for COVID-19 patients, the situation on ground has taken an alarming turn. Just a day after the recent curfew was lifted, not a single bed with ventilator support is available, and only a few oxygen beds are accessible in Pune city.

Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) call centre set up to handle bed vacancies is flooded with desperate requests for intensive care unit (ICU) beds, leaving doctors struggling with critical patients. Even the district collector has admitted that the situation is bad, but claimed they are working hard to improve it.


At present, Pune has some 3,701 beds with oxygen support, and 475 beds with ventilator support. Various district officials claimed that during the recent lockdown, they increased bed capacity in the city to cater to the rising requirement. And yet, the reality is mismatched. As per PMC officials, not a single bed is now available to cater to critical patients as of Friday.

Road department head VG Kulkarni, who heads the bed management cell, confirmed, “We do not have any beds for critical patients. We are trying to send those who can pay for treatment to hospitals in Pimpri-Chinchwad. In our city, nothing is left.”

PMC’s call centre to coordinate bed availability is constantly flooded with calls — 35-40 per hour on average. In total, at least 45-50 patients every day require critical care with oxygen or ventilator support. Now, it has become difficult to answer these individuals. A staff member at the control room shared, “I have stopped relying on the dashboard as figures are unreliable. I call up every hospital instead. Even though I saw vacancies on the dashboard, every hospital on Friday claimed all beds for critical care are occupied. For patients requiring ventilator support, we are trying to keep them on oxygen support at our COVID-19 care centres.

If their health deteriorates further, we suggest a shift to Sassoon General Hospitals (SGH) with the hope it can be better handled there. But now, even beds are all occupied.”

Unnervingly, the situation is likely to worsen. As per data from PMC on July 22, Pune is projected to host atotal of 60,328 positive patients, including 27,147 active cases by the end of this month. At least 23,075 will require isolation without oxygen; 2,715 will need isolation with oxygen, 1,357 ICU beds without oxygen, and 679 will need ventilator support. So, PMC faces a shortage of 11,822 beds without oxygen, 652 beds with oxygen, 848 ICU beds and 374 ventilator beds on July 31. This is likely to worsen with a projected shortage of 7,084 oxygen beds and 1,982 ventilator beds by August 31.

On their part, hospitals stated that they are trying their best. Dr Dhananjay Kelkar, medical director at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, said “We have all 43 ICU beds occupied and 12 more patients who might need them anytime. We are also admitting those who do not require critical care. Even if we admit critical patients, we can only provide oxygen and not ventilator support, so we are telling them to keep searching for ICU beds elsewhere. As per figures, we hope the July peak is over and we expect a reduction in cases in coming days. In a meeting with the authorities on Thursday, we suggested that hospitals make 50 per cent of their ICU beds available for COVID-19 care.”

Saying they have zero ICU beds now, Rhea Punjabi, medical superintendent and coordinator for COVID-19 at Inlaks and Budhrani Hospital, said, “We have made around 23 oxygen beds available on Friday evening and four got occupied within a few hours. All our ICU beds are occupied. Whenever we get a call from ahospital to shift a patient, we first get their oxygen saturation rate and comorbidity details. We are normally able to settle patients with oxygen support. But we have no ventilator support available.”

Elaborating on some issues, Dr Sanjay Pathare, medical director at Ruby Hall Clinic, said, “Every hospital needs to ramp up capacity. We are increasing 70 beds with oxygen and ventilator support. All hospitals have shown willingness. But we have some problems, too. Adding beds means we need more nurses and doctors. That is also difficult. To run COVID-19 beds, we need double the staff, as working hours shorten with the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits.”

Admitting to the crisis, district collector Naval Kishore Ram said, “In the twin towns, beds with ventilators are still available. But the movement of patient needs to be done carefully. Coordination is needed with a hospital to make a bed available. It is true that the situation is bad. But we are working hard and trying to improve it in the next few days.”