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Pune city likely to face shortage of oxygen beds
PUNE Even as patients struggle to get ventilator beds, beds equipped with oxygen supply are rapidly getting occupied and experts fear that Pune may soon face a shortage of oxygenated beds
PUNE Even as patients struggle to get ventilator beds, beds equipped with oxygen supply are rapidly getting occupied and experts fear that Pune may soon face a shortage of oxygenated beds.
On Wednesday evening (at 7.15 pm), 46 beds were vacant out of 5,462 allocated oxygen beds in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits, according to the numbers on the Pune division Covid dashboard.
The city has reported multiple cases wherein people had to struggle to get a bed equipped with an oxygen supply.
Roopesh Pitale, who struggled to get his father admitted, said, “My father’s oxygen level dropped on Tuesday. But we struggled to get a bed for him. Finally, after many hours a bed was arranged in Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital and I admitted him there.”
Hemant Chikhale, a resident of Kharadi shared a similar experience. “My friend’s father was in home isolation, but later due to breathlessness doctors advised us to get him admitted. Even after several hours, we couldn’t get him admitted. My friend had to make alternate arrangements.”
Meanwhile, the daily covid report shared by the PMC also indicates that there has been an exponential increase in the number of patients on oxygen support in the last five days. On April 9, at least 4,662 patients were on oxygen support and 1,003 patients were critical. Whereas on April 13, at least 5,181 patients were on oxygen support and 1,086 were critical. So the number of patients who are on oxygen support has increased by 519.
PMC officials claimed that they have been trying to increase the availability of oxygenated beds.
“Every day we have been adding oxygen beds to the existing capacity. On Wednesday we made oxygen beds available in ESI hospitals. We will add more,” said Dr Manisha Naik, assistant medical officer, PMC.
Dr Avinash Bhondave, immediate past president, (Maharashtra) Indian Medical Association, said, “Infection has been growing among comorbid and elderly patients and so the need for oxygen is growing.”
“Some people ignore the early symptoms like mild cough, tiredness and take medicine without consulting doctors. They don’t even monitor oxygen level. When they feel severe breathlessness then they come to the doctors. If they consult doctors early then the infection could be managed without oxygen support,” he said.
“Another reason is that some are getting CT scans without consulting doctors. When the CT score comes they pressurise doctors to admit them. Also, there is a flawed implementation of home isolation,” he said.
