Demand for ICU beds continues to rise in TS

Pvt hosps get 10-12 calls for beds despite drop in cases

Despite the fall in Covid cases, the demand for intensive care unit beds has not come down in the state. There are a minimum of 10 to 20 inquiries for ICU beds to private hospitals in Hyderabad. Small hospitals on the outskirts say they get between 50 and 100 calls a day from districts.

An ICU bed is required for ventilator support and some of them require a combination of ventilator and dialysis machine. Hospitals that have ventilators but no dialysis machines are not of use to Covid-19 patients in a serious condition.

Dr Rahul Medakkar, chief operating officer of Care Hospitals, said the recovery rate on ventilator support is 75 per cent. “Those who are on ventilators require care for 15 to 21 days. These beds do not get vacated fast.”

Experts say those who require ventilator support have been at treatment at home for six days and in small hospitals for at least four to seven days. IT is when their condition worsens that they look for beds in multi-speciality hospitals.

This situation in the second wave has been worrisome. A senior doctor says, “We have maximum cases in home treatment. There are some who, after three to four days of recovery, are going back to work. On day 10 or 15, their oxygen levels are reducing and then we see the relatives frantically seeking help from doctors.”

Volunteers co-ordinating with government and private hospitals say the demand for oxygen concentrators has come down but not of ICU beds.

Private hospitals in the city have a total of about

3,000 ICU beds — Apollo Hospitals has 130, Care Hospitals 120, Yashoda Hospitals 4,0 and Asian Institute of Gastroenterology 400, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences

85, SLG Hospitals 65 and other small and medium hospitals have 20 beds with ventilators.

The other ICU beds in the private hospital are for non-Covid patients, which are operational in the 10 multi-speciality hospitals of the city.

The health department has, in a detailed note, stated that there are 1,677

ICU beds of which, 493 are vacant in government hospitals. In the private sector, there are

6,677 ICU beds; of which

2,592 are vacant.

But, in the city, no hospital is responding for ICU beds and the only response is that there are no beds available to desperate relatives and friends.

A volunteer at Gandhi Hospital said, “There are patients who go around private hospitals and come to Gandhi Hospital at the end. By the time treatment starts, there are very few who survive as precious time has been lost. Since the last 15 days, we are seeing this; and in the last seven days, the demand for ICU beds is very high. Many patients arrive too late.”