Gurugram: Hospitals with less than 20 beds told not to admit Covid patients

GURUGRAM: The state government has decided that hospitals with less than 15-20 beds cannot admit Covid patients from now.
Currently, Gurugram does not have any vacant ICU and ventilator beds to accommodate patients and till Thursday night, only 16 oxygen beds were available across the district. Keeping in mind that the directive issued on Thursday would mean the number of beds would be reduced further, the Gurugram health department has urged the state director general, health services, for an exemption.

“I have already sent a letter to the state health department seeking an exemption. This is not practical for a place like Gurugram. We are facing a crisis of beds and asking smaller units not to take in patients will only add to the chaos,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurugram.
Earlier, the district administration had said that only registered hospitals are allowed to treat Covid patients in Gurugram.Currently, more than 32,000 patients are in home isolation in the district and many of them are waiting to get hospital beds.Several residents said that they are being turned away by smaller facilities, as they do not have regular oxygen supply.
“I was asked to take a discharge as the hospital doesn’t have a ventilator facility,” said Naresh Saha, whose father was at a nursing home in Sector 12. Officials at a Covid nursing home in Sector 31, however, said that they were not asking people to take discharge. “As we are facing issues in refilling our oxygen cylinders, we are unable to take in critical patients,” said a doctor at the facility.
Asked about the state government order, the nursing home association, said it is not aware of it.
“We are not aware of any such order. We are still continuing with our services,” said Umesh Gupta, a member of the Nursing Home Association, Gurugram.
The state government order has also stated that to monitor oxygen consumption at each hospital, a nurse and an OT technician will form an ‘Oxygen Monitoring Team’ for each shift. The team will inspect gas pipeline, wall mounted gas outlets and cylinders to detect and promptly address leakages, if any.