Sharp rise in ICU occupancy as cases from nearby cities come to Noida district

Noida: As the number of coronavirus (Covid-19) disease goes up in the Gautam Budh Nagar district, officials assure that the city has enough hospital beds, even as

Noida: As the number of coronavirus (Covid-19) disease goes up in the Gautam Budh Nagar district, officials assure that the city has enough hospital beds, even as hospitals anticipate a surge in the number of critical patients and see an immediate need to augment intensive care unit (ICU) beds.

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Projecting a grim picture, the number of patients in ICUs in the district saw a surge of about a 100% in the past two days, even as the total number of patients in the hospitals has dropped.

According to the official figures, Gautam Budh Nagar – comprising Noida and Greater Noida – has a total of 1,811 beds for Covid-19 in service across its 12 government and private hospitals, of which 383 beds are in ICU wards and 181 are with ventilators.

As of Tuesday, there were 1,228 active cases in the district, of which 1,097 are from Gautam Budh Nagar, admitted across different hospitals of the city or home isolated, said the chief medical officer (CMO).

On Tuesday, the district recorded one more fatality due to Covid-19 which has pushed the death tally to 70, while the total number of cases recorded so far is 19,531, with 119 new cases on Tuesday, according to the official data.

“A of total 486 patients are home isolated while 742 patients are admitted across different L1, L2 and L3 hospitals in the district. Out of these 742 patients, a total of 131 are from other cities including Delhi,” said Dr Deepak Ohri, CMO.

As of Tuesday morning, out of the total of 1,811 Covid-19 beds in the city, 742 beds were occupied, leaving 1,069 beds available. While on Monday, there were a total of 1,127 beds available.

“We have enough or rather, more than enough beds available. There are a total of 1,811 beds in service for Covid-19, besides which we have kept 2,000 beds on reserve in case of an emergency situation. There are many patients coming here from neighbouring cities, including Delhi, Ghaziabad, Agra, etc., so we have sent clear instructions to all hospitals that they will have to inform the CMO and district magistrate’s office upon admitting any patients from other districts,” said Ohri.

Fears of ICU bed shortage

While officials say there are enough beds for the city, the issue is the number of Covid-19 patients in needing ICUs or oxygen support.

Going by to official records, on Tuesday there were a total of 120 patients on oxygen support in the district, while 18 were on ventilators. This is a sharp increase from Sunday, when the number of patients in ICU was 64, of which eight were on ventilators.

Meanwhile, hospitals anticipate a possible shortage in the number of ICU beds in ICU in the coming days.

“Till Sunday, of the 30 ICU beds at our hospital, we had 28 occupied and three of these were High Dependency Unit (HDU). Due to the surge in critical cases, we have augmented the bed strength, by converting HDUs into ICUs. By Monday, we had 32 patients in ICU and we have already started converting some of the HDU beds into ICUs as the demand is high,” said Dr Ajit Kumar, spokesperson, Sharda University, which is Noida city’s only L3 covid-care hospital.

Anticipating a need, the Government Institute of Medical Science (GIMS), Greater Noida had increased its ICU capacity from 40 beds to 80.

“Currently we have about 100 Covid-19 patients, of which 40 are in ICU. Critical cases have increased and we have seen an increase of about 30% in ICU occupancy in the past week,” said Dr Saurabh Srivastava, head of the department Medicine and nodal officer of the Covid-19 team at GIMS.

“Definitely there is a surge in the number of patients and many patients are coming from neighbouring cities like Delhi, Faridabad, Agra, Meerut, etc. Though we have enough beds, the only issue is that we have limited manpower,” said Dr (Brig) Rakesh Gupta, director, GIMS.

At Yatharth Hospital, a private hospital with a 200 bedded Covid-19 facility, too, the number of critical Covid-19 cases has increased.

“The number of critical patients has surged after Durga Puja. At present, 90% of the ICU beds are occupied, which was about 50% ten days ago,” said Yatharth Tyagi, director, Yathath Hospital.

Meanwhile at Fortis Hospital in Noida, the occupancy was full.

“The total Covid-19 beds are 45, of which 23 are ICU beds having eight ventilators. Currently the occupancy is 100%,” said an official from the Fortis Healthcare Limited, asking not to be identified.