Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 20

At the PGI, one in every 13 patients admitted to the hospital this year died, accounting for a death-patient ratio of 1:13.42. Last year, one in every 14 patients had died at the institute. The death-patient ratio has worsened during the past two years at the PGI, courtesy Covid.

On the contrary, AIIMS, New Delhi, saw lesser deaths in 2021 and its death-patient ratio was 1:20.8 till June.

Prof Jagat Ram, Director, PGI, said: “The institute has been admitting serious and critical patients of Covid-19 since March last year. The death rate among severe Covid patients was very high. The PGI is the only tertiary care hospital in Punjab, Haryana and HP. Mostly, the PGI is flooded with patients from various quarters through referrals. We cannot send patients to other hospitals, unlike AIIMS, Delhi, which has an option of referring patients to other hospitals such as Safadarjung Hospital. That is why, AIIMS has a better death-patient ratio than the PGI.”

Around 7,122 Covid patients have been admitted to the PGI so far, of whom 1,221 belonged to Haryana and 2,864 to Punjab. A total of 1,713 patients have died due to Covid-19 at the PGI — a mortality rate of 24 per cent.

The details of the patients who died during the past three years and the current year in hospitals under the Centre and its associated institutes, along with the death-patient ratio, was presented by the Health Ministry in the Rajya Sabha recently.