KOLKATA:
Covid ICU beds added by some
private hospitals, after a prod from the state government last week, were taken up within hours of them being set up. At some facilities along the EM Bypass, the waiting list has got longer after the extension of
Covid units, prompting the hospital authorities to plead that they have reached a saturation point and can no longer stretch their resources to accommodate more beds. If the number of Covid positives continue to spiral at the existing rate, Kolkata could be heading for a major crisis by the end of the pujas, warned doctors.
All the 10 ICU beds added by Fortis Hospital last week were occupied in 12 hours. While the waiting list continues to grow, the hospital now has 20 ICU beds apart from 65 general beds for
Covid patients. “Despite our best efforts, we won’t possibly be able to add more. Our resources are stretched to the limit but the demand for beds keeps rising. Apart from space which is limited, you need additional medical equipment and healthcare personnel to have more beds. It’s more difficult to extend critical care units since they require round-the-clock monitoring. Attending to more patients would require additional healthcare staff which is difficult to arrange now,” said Fortis pulmonologist Raja Dhar.
AMRI Hospitals had added 55 beds across its three units on Thursday, including 20 critical care beds, taking the total Covid bed count to 265. All the new beds were filled up in a day. “We had been preparing for this extension for quite some time now. Additional monitors and ventilators had been ordered months ago, which allowed us to go ahead with the extension. But our resources are now exhausted and this is probably the limit to which we can stretch ourselves,” said AMRI CEO Rupak Barua.
The augmentation of Covid units, however, has led more to queue up for admission at hospitals. Belle Vue Clinic added 30 beds to its Covid unit last week, taking the total bed count to 160. The new beds were filled up in half-a-day, according to CEO P Tondon. “Eight patients were discharged on Sunday and we had 11 queued up for the vacancies. The list is growing fast and we have been forced to prioritize between the serious patients and the rest,” said Tondon.
“Unless we rope in nursing homes and set up more satellite centres, catering to this patient load would be difficult,” said Barua.
Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra agreed. The hospital is gearing up to add eight Covid ITU beds to its existing strength of 21. It has eight Covid patients queued up for the new beds. “The added beds would be taken up in no time and considering that we have more than a dozen added to the waiting list every day, the extension won’t make a huge difference. We have stretched all our physical resources to accommodate the new beds. But our healthcare staff are overworked and can’t be asked to handle further pressure,” said Mitra.
RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS) would be commissioning an additional 25 beds by October 22. “A lot of infrastructural work needs to be done to add these extra beds. Our current strength of 105 Covid beds remains fully occupied,” said zonal director R Venkatesh.
Adding a few beds will now be like a drop in the ocean, said Dhar. “We are at a critical juncture now since cases are rising with the festival round the corner. Resources have been stretched and healthworkers are exhausted. So, the stress should now be on prevention and stricter compliance of safety norms. Or else, we could be heading for an unmanageable situation,” said Dhar.