Rajkot: Already overshooting even its extended capacity, the GG Hospital of Jamnagar on Wednesday stopped admitting new Covid-infected patients. As against 1,450 beds in this Covid-19 hospital, there are 1,600 patients under treatment, resulting in a massive pressure on the staff as well as infrastructure. On Wednesday alone, 156 new patients were admitted.
“We are trying to create 600 more beds in the next few days but there is a shortage of oxygen storage facilities. There is no meaning of admitting people if we are not able to provide them treatment,” Jamnagar district collector Ravi Shankar told TOI. There are 200 patients being treated in temporary beds acquired from the Indian Navy. These beds are also provided with oxygen facilities and per day consumption of oxygen is nearly 36,000 kilo litres.
Owing to the massive influx of Covid-19 infected people, the entire hospital infrastructure, the biggest in Jamanagar, is exhausted and it will not be able to admit new patients for the next five days at least, said Shakar, requesting patients to opt for other hospitals for few a days.
While the district administration could manage beds from other departments including dental college and Ayurveda hospitals, installing oxygen facility is the biggest challenge.
The hospital’s out-patient department (OPD) is handling 600 patients per day.
GG Hospital handles patients from Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Morbi, Rajkot, Junagadh and Amreli districts. According to sources, the state government is also trying to create more infrastructure in Rajkot and Morbi to stop the influx of Covid patients into Jamnagar.