District Collector Naval Kishore Ram told The Indian Express that at least two to three incidents of patients being rejected by hospitals due to lack of beds painted a bad picture.
Anticipating a shortfall of over 200 ICU beds, 100 ventilators and more than 1,000 beds with oxygen supply by July 20, as the number of Covid-19 cases surge in the city, the administration on Wednesday asked hospitals to enhance their bed capacity.
District Collector Naval Kishore Ram told The Indian Express that at least two to three incidents of patients being rejected by hospitals due to lack of beds painted a bad picture.
“There is an urgent need for increasing the number of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients,” the Collector said at a meeting, attended by representatives of several hospitals, which went on for more than three hours. The meeting was chaired by Saurabh Rao, Officer on Special Duty at the Divisional Commissioner’s office, who also warned hospitals to update their dasboards about the availability of beds.
Pune is expected to face a shortage of 216 ICU beds and 109 ventilators by July 20, according to projections made by the civic administration. By July 20, Pune will see at least 12,799 active cases and in another 10 days, the figure is set to jump up to 19,599.
“The number of non-Covid patients are few, with only 30 to 40 per cent occupancy in the non-Covid wards,” said Ram, adding that it was the need of the hour to re-allocate these beds for Covid-19 patients.
Of Covid-19 patients in the city, at least 30 to 35 per cent were asymptomatic, and doctors must appeal and convince them to stay in home quarantine, he said. “The patients at home can be counselled by the doctors and there is no need for panic,” said the collector.
“While hospitals are raising the difficulties faced by them, such as manpower crisis, at the administration we strongly believe we can overcome this situation with an encouraging and motivated medical community,” he added.
Pune Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar told The Indian Express that hospitals have been urged to update details about their bed strength on a real time basis on the dashboard. On their part, authorities of most private hospitals said that they had already stepped up their bed strength.
At Sahyadri Hospital, group medical director Dr Sunil Rao said the hospital had a total of 315 beds for Covid-19 patients and will again check if more beds could be realigned.
Vinod Sawantwadkar, CEO of Jehangir Hospital, said the hospital already allocated 104 beds for Covid-19 patients. “There has been a request for more beds and we are working out how the arrangements can be made at our hospital,” he said.
Dr Sanjay Pathare, medical director at Ruby Hall Clinic, said the hospital had 160 beds for Covid-19 patients and as per the administration’s request, hospital authorities were checking if they could meet the requirements at their centres at Wanowrie and Hinjewadi.
“All of us are under immense strain and we have been supporting the administration by stepping up bed strength. There are also genuine concerns related to staff’s salary payments and ensuring adequate manpower to treat Covid-19 patients,” said Dr H K Sale, executive director of Noble Hospital.
“In a family, if a couple is infected and the husband may require hospitalisation, how do we tell the wife who has mild symptoms and the child who tests negative to stay at home,” asked Dr Sale, adding, “They insist on staying at the hospital as food and other arrangements are taken care of here”.
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