Pune: Across large city hospitals, critical care beds still not easily available

While the number of coronavirus infection cases in Pune has been falling steadily, critical care beds in large hospitals across Pune continue to be fully occupied by Covid-19 patients as well as those receiving treatment for post-Covid complications. Administrations of some prominent hospitals in Pune admitted that they were still not able to easily make critical care beds available for new patients.

“Most critical care patients are being referred to the tertiary hospitals in Pune city from peripheral areas. In addition, there are patients who have recovered from Covid but have contracted the rare fungal infection mucormycosis… or have post-Covid complications, who are being admitted,” said Dr Avdhut Bodamwad, medical superintendent at Ruby Hall Clinic.

Presently, there are 16,523 active cases of coronavirus infection in Pune city. A total of 1,364 patients are critical and admitted to various hospitals while another 5,010 patients are on oxygen support, according to health officials with Pune Municipal Corporation. In Pune city, a total of 4.6 lakh persons have tested positive for Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

While new admissions have come down, Dr Bodamwad said, at Ruby Hall Clinic all the 50 ICU beds were full. “So far, we have treated nearly 50 cases of mucormycosis”, he said.

At Jehangir Hospital, authorities said it will take at least a month for patients currently admitted to the intensive care unit to recover. “Most of the 30 ICU beds are full,” said an official of Jehangir Hospital.

Dr Jitendra Oswal, deputy medical director at Bharati Hospital, also said that earlier, they required 150-160 vials of anti-viral drug Remdesivir but now the demand has dropped to 25-30 vials per day and this also indicates a definite drop in new admissions of moderately-ill Covid patients, he said.

At Bharati Vidyapeeth Hospital, medical director Dr Sanjay Lalwani said Covid-19 cases have come down by 70 per cent. “However, those patients who are critical continue to pull on for two to three weeks,” Dr Lalwani said. At least 25 per cent of the patients admitted to the ICUs are from adjoining districts where the caseload of Covid infections is high, and the same trend is likely to continue till the end of May, said Dr Lalwani.

“All our 75 beds in the ICU are full. We have also decided to reserve 20 beds for patients who are now testing negative for Covid after recovering, but still are critical and require a high amount of oxygen support,” said Dr Lalwani.

Dr Sanjay Patil, chairman of Indian Medical Association’s Hospital Board of India, said with the increasing recovery rate, several people are also complaining of post-Covid complications.

Covid-19 takes a toll on almost all the essential organs of the body. It not only attacks the lungs but other body parts too due to which health problems crop up. Patients who have recovered from Covid-19 often exhibit symptoms like cough, stress, chest tightness, depression, lack of sleep, brain fog, anxiety, joint pain, tiredness, breathing and neurological problems, or even chest pain. Apart from stroke and heart attack, even other conditions like diabetes, lung fibrosis, and hypertension are part of post-Covid syndromes, he said.