Pune: 140 ICU beds by July 31, three giant hospitals in August

PUNE: The district would get 140 ICU beds with ventilator support before the end of this months, officials in the divisional commissioner’s office stated on Monday.

Sassson general hospital has pledged to ready 90 of these beds, while various private hospitals in the city would ready 50 more such beds before the month-end to address the shortfall of beds, divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar told TOI . All these beds will cater to the needs of patients in the district. Hospitals in the rural areas have offered nearly 500 beds in the near future.
Officer on special duty at Pune divisional commissioner’s office Saurabh Rao told TOI that the three giant makeshift hospitals, proposed on the lines of the facility at Bandra Kurla Complex, would start simultaneously. He said while the ground of the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) has been finalized for the first such facility, expression of interest had earlier been drawn out for the Balewadi stadium which would possibly be reworked.
Talks were also on for other locations at Sanghvi, SSPMS grounds and Kharadi and a decision was likely to be taken within two days,” he said, adding that the work of all three facilities with 2,400 beds, including 1,800 with oxygen support, should be completed by August-end.
During the 10-day total lockdown period from July 14, Mhaisekar said, the administration added 177 ICU beds. Besides, there has been a rise in the number of beds without oxygen and ventilation support. The number of beds without oxygen and ventilator support went up to 24,194 from 16,057 and 615 from 422, respectively, from July 13 to July 26.
The divisional commissioner said the state government on Monday allocated Rs18 crore towards Covid care in Pune division.
In the meantime, the district administration was preparing a list of over 5,000 registered doctors and nurses to tide over the shortage of medical staffers.
Officials said some private hospitals have said many of their staffers, mostly nurses, have left Maharashtra since the outbreak of the pandemic. An official said talks were on with the Kerala government to ensure return of the nurses to the hospitals in Maharashtra.