‘Health facilities will be ramped up this week’

Deputy commissioner Yash Garg spoke to Archana Mishra about the shortfall in hospital beds for Covid-19 patients and the possible solutions being explored by the district administration

Deputy commissioner Yash Garg spoke to Archana Mishra about the shortfall in hospital beds for Covid-19 patients and the possible solutions being explored by the district administration.

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How is the district administration planning to address the Covid-19 burden on the existing healthcare infrastructure?

Hospital facilities will be ramped up this week. Besides the existing 2,600 beds reserved for Covid-19 patients, we have tied up with ESIC Hospital for at least 72 beds, and the addition of over 500 beds in SGT Medical College, 150 beds in World College of Medical Sciences and Hospital, Jhajjar, and 120 beds in Medeor Hospital. These facilities will be upgraded in the next three to five days to treat moderate to severely ill Covid-19 patients.

Did the administration not anticipate the load on healthcare infrastructure due to the surge in cases?

Across the country, the healthcare infrastructure has been overwhelmed with rising Covid-19 cases. It is in the last seven to eight days that cases have exponentially increased in Gurugram. The spread has been too fast. Still, hospitals are in the continuous process of upgrading reserved bed capacity to accommodate patients. Strengthening a hospital infrastructure requires time.

More than 91% of the active cases in the district are home isolated, but it is still difficult to find a hospital bed. Why is that?

Gurugram caters to the entire Delhi-NCR, parts of Haryana and other nearby states. Since the city has some of the best hospitals, people from other cities want to be admitted (to the facilities) here. Even patients with mild symptoms, who do not require hospitalisation and can be home isolated, are also admitted to hospitals. We have requested hospitals to first consider city-based serious Covid-19 cases. But for a doctor, a patient cannot be looked at on the basis of city or state. Therefore, we are making an effort to upgrade the existing infrastructure to accommodate every serious case.

You have formed 10 teams to keep a close watch on bed occupancy in big hospitals of the city. What has been the outcome so far?

We were able to vacate roughly about 90 beds that were occupied by cases that did not require hospitalisation. Till Sunday, we were able to arrange beds for 200 patients as these teams have been closely monitoring hospitals’ discharge policies and bed availability.

With respect to the current situation, what message would you like to convey to citizens?

People should not panic and rush to hospitals if they test positive for Covid-19. Over 90% of cases can be managed at home by isolating. Visit hospitals only if it is required.