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With new discharge protocol, PMC rethinks over creating more isolation centres in Pune
Civic chief says it is a mammoth task to organise for 10,000 beds, food facilities and toiletries.
Pune: With the new discharge protocol of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) coming into effect nationally, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is reviewing its decision to expand the isolation facilities it had proposed earlier.
Be it the upcoming 10,000-bed capacity at Balewadi sports complex or the Wipro office at Hinjewadi that was proposed to be turned into a capacity of 450 beds, the civic body has decided to review it as the new protocol seeks early discharge of covid positive person. As per the new protocol, a person showing mild and moderate symptoms needs to be discharged in 10 days without a second test. This, as PMC commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad stated earlier and reported by Hindustan Times, will make more beds available to admit new patients.
Despite doubling rate reducing the PMC’s decision on not increasing isolation facility may create problems if there is a sudden spurt in cases, warn experts.
“We are revisiting the decision to create more new quarantine or isolation centres like the facility at Balewadi sports complex or the recent Wipro IT office at Hinjewadi. With the next ICMR protocols, we have about 500 beds immediately available for new patients so we will review the situation and take a call accordingly. It is a mammoth task to organise for 10,000 beds, food facilities and toiletries. Logistics is another added work. We also need money to do all this. So, for now, we will wait and take a call accordingly,” Gaikwad said.
A civic official said the isolation centre planned at Balewadi sports complex would have been the largest centre in the city.
The proposed Wipro facility at Hinjewadi was to be developed by the IT firm which will provide beds and oxygen supply units for 12 out of the 450 beds, only after the PMC expresses the need. “Work at the office campus is yet to start since the PMC is reviewing its need for the facility,” said Gaikwad.
As per the state report from the public health department, there are also 1,863 beds in the dedicated covid hospital (DCH), 1,751 isolation beds at dedicated covid health centre (DCHC) and 6,067 beds at the dedicated covid care centre (DCCC).
As per the report, Pune reports a 13.8% utilisation of DCH ICU beds, 5.5% utilisation of DCHC hospital ICU beds. In terms of utilisation of ventilators, Pune has maximum utilisation in the state out of the 14 districts in the dedicated hospitals. As of May 9, 45 ventilators were occupied out of 93 ventilators available for Covid-19 which is 48.4% while in the case of DCHC ventilators, out of 72, 15 are occupied which is 20.8% ventilators.
Despite a less utilisation of available beds in the city, PMC is hoping to get more beds by discharging current patients following the new protocol by ICMR. Doctors in the city say that even if they would want to hold back the patients there is no use as National Institute of Virology (NIV) refuses to test the swab in case of a follow-up case.
Dr Vijay Natarajan, chief executive officer (CEO) of Symbiosis University Hospital which is a nodal Covid-19 facility, said, “We have to discharge the patients as per the protocol and even after 14th day, NIV is not retesting their sample. We have had patients who tested positive even on the 15 or sometimes 20th day too. Any infected person who is positive irrespective of the viral load in his body is more likely to infect more people. A single person can infect around 4-5 people and could multiply cases. Hence, if the civic body starts discharging patients to save a single bed, it may cause a spurt in the number of cases and could fill four to five more beds in future. No matter what but complete self-quarantine is next to impossible in a typical middle-class family in India.”
