2nd wave: Patna hospitals face shortage of beds

Most beds are full in major hospitals of Patna, treating Covid-19 patients

Most beds are full in major hospitals of Patna, treating Covid-19 patients.

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As many as 83 out of 112 beds were occupied at the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), the oldest government-run medical college of Bihar, on Tuesday. At AIIMS, 106 of the 115 beds were occupied, while only 12 of the 100 beds at the Nalanda Medical College Hospital were available.

The Paras-HMRI hospital and the Ruban Memorial hospital, the two NABH-accredited hospitals in Patna, are also full.

“We are running 100% occupancy with 49 of our 50 beds full for Covid-19 patients,” said Paras medical superintendent Dr Syed Asif Rahman.

At Ruban hospital, all 93 beds for Covid-19 patients were occupied.

“I feel helpless when I have to refuse patients because of unavailability of beds. Yesterday, one patient brought to our facility died because we could not provide ICU bed as all 26 are occupied. We have a running waitlist, which has now shot up to 18 as on Tuesday. We are admitting Covid-19 patients through the waiting list generated at our hospital,” said Dr Satyajit Singh, director, Ruban hospital.

He said the hospital would increase 15 beds tomorrow and another five later this week to accommodate the rush of patients.

Dr Rahman claimed there was a shortage of Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug used in the management of Covid-19 patients.

“We have already told the health department and have been mentioning about the shortage of Remdesivir in our daily report to the state drug controller for the last 4-5 days. We are managing the drug somehow through our central unit in Gurgaon and supplying patients on a daily basis,” said Dr Rahman.

The AIIMS-Patna was increasing its bed capacity to 145 from Wednesday, said Dr Veena Singh. It had increased its number of beds earmarked for Covid-19 patients from 60 to 100 initially and then to 115 this month.

On papers, Bihar has a capacity of 21,203 beds at its dedicated Covid hospital, dedicated Covid healthcare centre and the Covid care centres. Of the available 15,883 beds, 14,974 were vacant and remaining 909 occupied as on Monday.