Not possible to cater to Bihar’s 100% emergency cases: AIIMS-Patna
There is a trend in Bihar where private and government hospitals refer emergency patients to AIIMS for ICU admissions in the evening, medical superintendent Dr CM Singh said
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Patna will not be able to cater to all emergency cases of Bihar despite plans to increase its capacity in emergency and intensive care unit (ICU) over the next couple of years, medical superintendent Dr CM Singh said while addressing a press conference at the institute on Tuesday.
“I doubt if we will be able to cater to 100% emergency cases of the state, having a population of 120-130 million, despite having a separate building for emergency services that may take 2-3 years, because by then the number of registration of patients will also go up,” Singh said.
He was responding to queries from media persons who said that emergency beds at Patna’s AIIMS were woefully short and many patients were refused admission at the hospital.
“We have 121 ICU beds and are offering all kinds of super-specialty services, including cardiothoracic and vascular surgeries and neurosurgeries. Such patients require post-operation ICU admission. As a result, we do not have as many ICU beds vacant,” he said, adding, “even AIIMS-Delhi or PGI-Chandigarh cannot treat 100% emergency cases”.
There is a trend in Bihar where private and government hospitals refer emergency patients to AIIMS for ICU admissions in the evening, he said, adding that he had apprised the state health department about this practice.
“We have to refer such patients. Still, I would say, out of 100 cases coming to our emergency in a day, only 10% get referred outside the institute,” he said.
Singh said outdoor patient department (OPD) footfall at AIIMS had more than doubled since the pre-Covid days.
“From registering a daily average of 2,000 patients in the OPD during pre-Covid days, we have now crossed 5,000 patients. No other AIIMS or hospitals under the state government that are older than ours had such a heavy patient footfall,” Singh stated.
“With increase in facilities and the work we have done during the pandemic, AIIMS-Patna has emerged as the first choice among public sector hospitals in the state,” he added.
The AIIMS in Patna, established in 2012, currently has only 90 beds in the emergency ward, of which 60 are for trauma and emergency, and 30 for medical emergency, besides 121 ICU beds. It has 960 in-patient beds in wards, said Dr Shreekant Bharti, its public relations officer.
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