Early signs of decreasing load of COVID-19 patients on Telangana government hospitals are on the horizon. The major government hospitals in Hyderabad where COVID patients are treated have started to report availability of hundreds of oxygen beds from the past two to three days.
Until then, people had to wait for several hours to get an oxygen bed. The images of patients waiting inordinately in ambulances at government hospitals are still fresh in the minds of families, volunteers, doctors, and hospitals administrators. Corporate hospitals in the city, however, are still packed to the brim.
Doctors at the government hospitals said patients in need of oxygen beds are not having to wait like they did in the past weeks.
The rush for beds at government hospitals began around 40 days ago, and soon, the occupancy for beds ran full. The situation remains more or less the same for ICU beds in most hospitals, barring a few facilities where the availability is slowly opening up.
On Saturday evening, around 120 oxygen beds were available at District Hospital in King Koti but ICU beds were completely occupied. Gandhi Hospital authorities said a few of their oxygen beds and ICU beds were available from the past two or three days.
However, according to the Health department’s website (health.telangana.gov.in) which shows availability of beds in government and private hospitals, ICU beds were fully occupied at Gandhi Hospital and the Government General and Chest Hospital in Erragadda too.
In case of Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS), 500 oxygen beds and 16 ICU beds were available on Saturday morning.
Superintendent of Gandhi Hospital, M. Raja Rao said that around 10 to 15 ICU beds, and around 50 oxygen beds were available. “We used to struggle and try a lot to accommodate more patients. Now, patients are able to get oxygen and ICU beds,” said Dr Raja Rao.
Phasing out lockdown
Professor at School of Medical Sciences at University of Hyderabad, B.R. Shamanna said if there are plans to lift the lockdown, it should be in graded manner such as increasing the relaxation time. “If the spread of infection increases again, more people without vaccination might develop severity. This would again increase load on ICU and oxygen beds,” he said.
Mr Shamanna also said that coronavirus containment measures for urban areas cannot be followed in slum areas and rural areas as density of population varies. “Slums are densely populated. So people with COVID have to be immediately admitted to isolation centres or COVID Care centres depending on severity,” he added.