Though the relevance of pulmonology in the efforts to treat critical COVID-19 patients cannot be understated, there is a severe shortage of qualified pulmonologists in several districts of Karnataka.

While the rate of mortality stood at 1.7% and the deaths per million went up from 36 to 68 between August 1 and 22 in Karnataka, most of the severely affected COVID-19 districts in the State had a very small number of pulmonologists, according to Jeevan Raksha, an initiative of Proxima, a management consulting firm, which conducted the study.

Validating the number of pulmonologists from Indian Medical Association (IMA), Jeevan Raksha pointed out that Karnataka had a total of 137 pulmonologists, who are medical experts dealing with diseases involving the respiratory tract.

Except for Bengaluru, which has 66 pulmonologists, and Mysuru with 13 pulmonologists, no other district in the State has pulmonologists in double digits. As many as six districts in Karnataka — Ballari, Hassan, Mandya, Yadgir, Haveri, and Chamarajanagar — do not have even a single pulmonologist, the study stated, citing the IMA data. It highlighted the possible gaps in the treatment on account of the high ratio of critical COVID-19 patients to pulmonologist. The study has put the critical patient to pulmonologist ratio in Karnataka at 52:1

“We noticed that the existing number of pulmonologists in the districts is grossly inadequate to treat the expected number of critical COVID-19 cases. In fact, some of the districts do not have a single qualified pulmonologist,” said Mysore Sanjeev, convenor of the Jeevan Raksha project, which is engaged in providing analytical insights on emerging pattern of COVID-19 in India to the Centre, State governments, and the general public.

“We are of the strong view that the local district administration should closely examine the availability of appropriate skills and competencies to treat the critical COVID-19 patients and develop suitable strategy to bridge the critical skill and competence gap,” Mr. Sanjeev said.