Gurugram relying on private hospitals to manage expected rise in Covid-19 cases

Facing an infrastructure constraint at government medical facilities in the fight against Covid-19, the Gurugram administration is focusing on building capacities

Facing an infrastructure constraint at government medical facilities in the fight against Covid-19, the Gurugram administration is focusing on building capacities at private hospitals in the district to meet an expected surge in positive cases, particularly after rapid antigen tests are going to start in coming days, officials said.

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In the next three weeks, that is by July 15, a total of 31 private hospitals in Gurugram are slated to have 252 ICU beds with ventilators, 260 beds without ventilators, 2,912 beds with oxygen and 3,336 isolation beds, according to a ‘preparedness report’ sent to the Centre by the administration on June 18. A copy of the report is with HT.

This is up from the existing private capacity of 92 ICU beds with ventilators, 98 beds without ventilators, 785 beds with oxygen and 1,298 isolation beds.

From 2,591 dedicated Covid-19 beds at present, Gurugram will have a total of 7,078 such beds by July 15, the district administration’s report suggests.

At present, only 16 of 31 private hospitals are engaged in the treatment of Covid-19 patients, with 70 ventilator ICU beds, 61 ICU beds, 410 oxygen beds and 448 isolation beds in use.

“The remaining resources will be put to use as the need arises,” said Dr Jai Prakash, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme’s district surveillance officer (DSO) in Gurugram.

Meanwhile, four government facilities -- Civil Hospital in Sector 10, ESIC Hospital in Sector 9, a polyclinic in Sector 31 and AIIMS, Badsa (in Jhajjar) -- will remain at their existing capacities of 80 ICU beds without ventilators, 108 beds with oxygen and 130 isolation beds. Surprisingly, there is no ICU beds with ventilators in any government facility in the district, the report suggests.

Though AIIMS, Badsa is in Jhajjar district, Covid patients from Gurugram are sent there for treatment, the officials said.

The health department is also slated to receive 19 new ambulances, in addition to the current fleet of 31 (which are all under utilisation) by July 15.

The officials said that building public health infrastructure is posing a major challenge in Gurugram. “This is true. The Civil Hospital building in Civil Lines is an unsafe structure, so we are operating from a new facility at Sector 10. But there is little space there to expand our bed facilities. In such a scenario, we have to rely on the private sector,” said Prakash.

Prakash also clarified that of existing private and public medical facilities, neither are yet overwhelmed. “We have enough capacity to deal with the current active caseload. Even if it increases in coming days, we are prepared to deal with as many as 7,000 active cases by mid-July. With antigen testing going to start soon, we will be able to find even more positive cases,” he said.