Districts in western UP are planning to pool in their hospital beds to fight the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) if cases surge further, said officials from the Ghaziabad health department.
This way, if all beds in a district are occupied, patients can be referred to other appropriate hospitals in the neighbouring district.
At present the six districts falling under the Meerut division -- Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Meerut, Hapur, Baghpat and Bulandshahr -- account for 28.7% cases out of the total 31,156 cases in the state.
“Since the cases are on rise, there are plans that hospitals in Meerut, Hapur and Ghaziabad get integrated. In case the number of patients get spillover in one district, they can be referred to hospitals having vacant beds in other districts. This will make better utilisation of available beds. The concept is in the planning stage and being considered in case Covid-19 count rises in future,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer. “Once the plan is finalised, the medical colleges/hospitals will be connected to each other in order to find out availability of beds.”
Compared to the other five, Hapur has a relatively low case count and officials said that keeping accessibility in mind, the three medical colleges there could be the first alternative under the plan for Ghaziabad.
{{/usCountry}}Compared to the other five, Hapur has a relatively low case count and officials said that keeping accessibility in mind, the three medical colleges there could be the first alternative under the plan for Ghaziabad.
{{/usCountry}}District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey did not respond to calls.
On the other hand, CMO said, Ghaziabad is also banking on paid private Covid-19 facilities for patients and more hospitals will be added to the list in coming days.
According to officials, they have 444 beds Covid beds available for patients in seven private hospitals in Ghaziabad and 84 of these are ICU beds.
“Of the total beds we have also acquired 13 ventilator beds from the seven hospitals so far. We need to take our total ventilator beds to 80 in the district. Apart from the 13 ventilator beds acquired by the government, we have 33 ventilator beds available at our government facilities. Apart from seven private hospitals presently under Covid operations, two more private hospitals have shown interest and will start with paid Covid treatment soon. Together, the two hospitals will add 150 more Covid beds,” Gupta added.
New L-1 facilities
The health department will also open up two more L-1 category Covid hospitals (for mild cases) within the week -- IMS, Dasna (350 beds) and AKGIT College (400 beds).
“We have added 100 more beds to the L-1 category Divyajyoti Hospital at Niwari taking its capacity to 350. At the SRM Campus, Modinagar we have opened up three storeys of the building with 250 beds. It has two more storeys where 100 additional beds can be added,” Dr Gupta said.