As Covid cases drop, more beds lie vacant in Pune hospitals
Pune: Hospitals are seeing more vacant beds with the city reporting less number of Covid-19 critical patients. Many city doctors have observed that the second wave is highly unlikely with vaccination around the corner and the positivity rate less than 10 per cent for coronavirus.
According to Pune Municipal Corporation’s updated data, total beds available in are 5,314 of which occupied are 1,529 and vacant 3,785, as on December 15.
Dr Sanjeev Wavare, assistant chief of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), said, “Covid critical patients have significantly reduced. Hence, jumbo hospitals and Covid care centres (CCC) are not taking any more patients. If the need arises, the administration will reconsider jumbo hospitals.”
On Wednesday, PMC decided not to admit new patients in the jumbo facility at College of Engineering, Pune. The civic body decided to divert fresh patients to Sassoon General Hospital and another facility in Baner while a decision on temporarily closing down the jumbo hospital will be taken once the existing patients here are recovered, according to PMC additional commissioner Rubal Agrawal. HT had reported that PMC was asked by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar to assess the utility of jumbo facility, which originally had capacity of 800 beds. The facility came up in August by spending over Rs 100 crores though it was embroiled in controversies.
Dr Prachee Sathe, director, intensive care unit (ICU), Ruby Hall Clinic said that there are less critical patients for Covid these days.
“One of the primary reasons is that many patients seek early medical treatment and recover. Early treatment helps patients to not go into critical mode. We have observed that patients from outside Pune are on the rise. Earlier, we had patients from Pune,” said Sathe.
Speaking about the decrease in patients, Dr Dhananjay Kelkar, medical director, Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, said that there are only 120 patients in their hospital as compared to 440 Covid patients in September.
“Of 120, only 11 are in ICU whereas in September, during the peak of Covid, there were 43 patients in ICU. There has been a 25 per cent reduction in critical patients in the hospital,” said Dr Kelkar.
He said that there may be an increase in Covid patients in July again. “We are hopeful that by that time vaccines will be out and those who are at high risk will be safe,” said Dr Kelkar.
Dr Avinash Bhondwe, president, Indian Medical Association (IMA) Maharashtra state, said that as the cases have reduced, the government should part with the acquired beds at certain hospitals for Covid patients.
“The chances of the second wave are low and vaccinations are just around the corner. In this case, a lot of non-Covid patients cannot be referred to good hospitals as the number of beds for non-Covid patients is limited. Hence, the government should let go of these acquired beds which will give a relief to patients and small hospitals not just in Pune but across Maharashtra,” Bhondwe said.
A case of recovery
*Date--Critical patients in PMC
*December 31--246
*December 30--242
*December 29--238
*December 28--333
*December 27--387
*December 19--328
*December 9--411
*December 1--408
*Source: Health Department, PMC