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Pune administration, hospitals cautious despite vacant Covid-19 beds
The board has said that although currently, the cases might be going down, it is likely that there might be a surge following Diwali season in November for which the city needs to be prepared.
Despite many private hospitals now having vacant beds available which they can put to use like in the pre-Covid times, the hospital’s board has decided not to appeal to the administration to waive off the price restrictions.
The board has said that although currently, the cases might be going down, it is likely that there might be a surge following Diwali season in November for which the city needs to be prepared.
According to the Covid care centre dashboard, as of Wednesday, of the 7,637 vacant chargeable beds in private hospitals, 4,937 are vacant and of the 289 ventilators, 123 are vacant.
With more than 50 per cent of the allocated beds now vacant, the hospitals are allowing treatment of non-Covid19 patients. However, they are not ready as of yet to appeal to the government to give up the requisition of beds under the epidemics act.
Dr Sanjay Patil, chairman, hospital board of India and Indian Medical Association (IMA) Pune chapter said, “It is true that the allocated Covid-19 hospital beds are now vacant, however, we have not yet appealed to the government about giving up the requisition as we all are aware that the second surge is just around the corner in the month of November. After Diwali, both the hospitals and the administration is expecting a surge and so it would be unnecessary to give up the requisition just for 10-20 days. The beds need to be available for this surge so that there is no last-minute rush or shortage of beds like last time.”
He also added that although these vacant beds are allocated for Covid-19 patients as they are now vacant the hospitals are admitting non-Covid-19 patients temporarily.
“During a verbal communication with the administration too, we agreed that it would not be right to open up all the private hospitals as earlier but it was also decided that private hospitals can use the vacant beds for non-Covid19 patients.”
