Mumbai’s civic hospitals see a rise in vacant beds

With the gradual dip in Covid-19 cases in the city, the number of vacant beds has jumped by 18 percentage points, compared to the first week of June, according to

With the gradual dip in Covid-19 cases in the city, the number of vacant beds has jumped by 18 percentage points, compared to the first week of June, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) data. Also, civic-run hospitals are reporting a gradual decrease in critically ill Covid-19 patients.

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On June 6, a total of 9,092 beds were reserved for Covid-19 patients in Dedicated Covid Hospitals (DCH) and Dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHC). Of these, 8,570 beds were occupied and 522 were vacant. Anticipating a rise in cases, BMC increased the bed strength by over 3,000 in the past 18 days. Currently, BMC has 12,130 beds in these hospitals, of which 2,923 beds are available.

“With faster recovery rate and considerably fewer cases, more beds are available now. Many patients, especially those who are on ventilator support, were admitted earlier,” said Dr Shashank Joshi, part of the state’s Covid-19 task force.

A majority of the vacant beds are in the intensive care unit (ICU), the capacity of which was recently increased to 1,362 from 1,102 beds.

HT had reported how only nine ICU beds were available in the first week of June. As of June 24, 108 ICU beds (7.9%) are available.

Dr Hemant Deshmukh, dean of KEM Hospital, Parel, said 25% of their total beds are currently unoccupied, up from zero vacancy on June 6. This despite the civic hospital receiving a majority of critical patients.

Similarly, Dr Ramesh Bharmal, in-charge of Lokmanya Tilak General Hospital, also known as Sion Hospital, said the pressure has reduced. “The situation is better than earlier when we were struggling to arrange for beds. Now, we have 30-40 beds vacant on a daily basis,” he said.

Data from BMC shows that 5,901 patients are on beds with oxygen facilities, compared to 3,424 such patients on June 6.

Explaining the surge, Dr Akash Khobragade, medical superintendent of the government-run St George Hospital, said, “Mild and moderate patients with breathing difficulties are usually kept on oxygen support. As the number of such cases has increased, they are occupying more beds with oxygen support, which in a way a good sign as the fatality rate among them is the lowest.”

Dr Sanjay Pattiwar, a public health expert, however, said there was no uniformity in the availability of beds. The crisis of beds is getting more severe towards suburbs such as Kandivli and Borivli, where cases are gradually increasing.

“The cases in south Mumbai have plateaued, but it hasn’t happened all across the city. Now, the load of patients has increased in suburban areas where hospitals like Shatabdi and Bhagwati are struggling to meet the demand,” he said.