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Pune faces severe shortage of ventilator beds
The district had only three vacant ventilator beds and the city zero on Wednesday, as per the Covid dashboard
PUNE The district faced a severe shortage of ventilator beds on Wednesday as it had only three vacant ventilator beds and the city zero, as per the Covid dashboard.
These three beds were available one in Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and two in rural areas, however, when contacted both the numbers were switched off.
A 30-year-old woman had to travel along with her family from Uruli Kanchan, which is about 30 kilometres from the city, to get admitted to Sassoon general hospital.
A relative from the city who helped the woman get a bed said, “We got her through an ambulance after they could not get a bed in their area. The patient was made to sit on a chair and get oxygen supply through the night (on Tuesday).”
“On Tuesday night when she arrived at the hospital, there were already 40 people waiting for an oxygen bed so they made her sit on a chair and supplied her oxygen. Finally, on Wednesday morning she got an oxygen bed,” she said.
Another patient from a rural area is trying to get a ventilator bed since April 26, but could not get it anywhere in the rural areas, even in the interiors of Bhor. Relative requesting anonymity said, “Since the past two days we were searching for a ventilator for a 57-year-old male who was admitted in a small hospital that did not have a ventilator.”
“The patient was on a ventilator with oxygen saturation levels between 80-85 with oxygen 10 litres a minute. The High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) score was about 22 to 25. Finally, after much waiting we got one at Navale hospital,” he said.
The situation in Pune seems to have spiralled out of control of the officials too who constantly get calls to either find a bed or get drugs. Even if one is lucky enough to find a bed, getting Tocilizumab has become another problem.
A senior Pune Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) official said, “We have heard that the state has been allocated around 800 injections of Tocilizumab. However, we are yet to get any. We are hoping to get at least 300 injections for Pune considering the high demand and because the district has the highest number of active Covid-19 cases in the state.”
