COVID-19: Pimpri Chinchwad on the brink of hospital bed shortage

Pune: Pimpri-Chinchwad city is on the brink of a hospital bed shortage especially oxygenated and ventilator beds in government as well as private hospitals. The jumbo hospital facilities being set up by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) is expected to be functional in a couple of days, but if that gets delayed and a number of Covid-19 critical patients rise then citizens may have to face a nightmare while searching for vacant hospital beds in the hospitals.

PCMC has planned for a jumbo facility at Bal Nagari. This mega facility will have a total of 425 beds capacity of which 300 will be oxygenated beds. The tender process for creating this facility was completed last week and construction work started immediately. PCMC Commissioner Shravan Hardikar and Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao had assured that the mega facility will be functional by August 8 to 10.

The Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial (YCM) hospital has been converted into a dedicated Covid-19 hospital. However, the patient flow from rural areas and cantonment areas nearby Pimpri-Chinchwad has burdened the healthcare facilities in the city. PCMC has made arrangements for 125 ambulances in order to reduce the search time for ambulances by patients and their relatives.

Pimpri Chinchwad city has reached near the Covid-19 total cases mark of 25 thousand of which 18 thousand were reported in July month alone. War rooms have been created at ward levels in order to monitor Covid-19 patients and hospital beds.

Recently, a 50-year-old man, staying near the YCM hospital opted to get treated for Covid-19 at a private hospital as there were no beds available at the government hospital. He had to shell out Rs 3.5 lakh for the treatment in a private hospital located near Kalewadi phata. Citizens are trapped in a situation where hospital beds are not vacant in government hospitals and treatment in private hospitals has become unaffordable for them.

PRIVATE HOSPITAL TREATMENT

• Patient – a 50-year-old man
• Total admission duration - 7 days
• Symptoms – Pneumonia 60 per cent, Covid-19 and swelling in throat
• Treatment and tests conducted – X-ray, CT Scan, Oxygenated bed
• Medicine expense – Rs 70 thousand
• Oxygenated Bed expense – Rs 15 thousand per day (Rs 1,05,000 for 7 days)
• Other expenses in hospital – Rs 1,38,000
• Total Bill – Rs 3,13,000

COVID-19 PATIENT COUNT IN PIMPRI-CHINCHWAD

• Asymptomatic – 3707
• Symptomatic – 954
• Serious – 114
• Ventilator – 54 (as of Friday evening)

VENTILATOR BEDS

• YCM Hospital – 30
• New Hospital, Bhosari – 10
• Jijamata Hospital, Pimpri – 12

PRIVATE HOSPITALS IN PIMPRI-CHINCHWAD

• Total beds – 1633
• Total patients – 725
• Beds available – 783
• ICU beds available – 125