Infra overrun: Scramble for ventilators, oxygen, ICU beds

NEW DELHI: A record daily spike in coronavirus infections pushed health infrastructure to the brink in several states on Friday as patients scrambled to secure hospital beds and ventilators, governments struggled to provide oxygen needed to stabilise serious patients, and crematoriums in major cities reported huge rush and long delays.

The worst crisis was reported from major urban centres with high caseloads, bringing true fears, expressed by experts when the pandemic first hit India in March last year, of infections inundating hospitals, overwhelming civic infrastructure and taking medical staff to the breaking point.

In Delhi, which reported its highest daily case number of 19,486 on Friday, 88% of 3,976 intensive care unit beds were occupied. Patients also reported acute difficulties in securing a bed. In Mumbai, which saw 8,839 cases, the bed occupancy rate was close to 80%. The availabililty of beds in ICUs or with oxygen support was even harder to come by. In Patna, all Covid-19 beds in premier institutes such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences were full.

What made matters worse for critical patients in several big cities was that the distribution of vacant beds was uneven and poorly publicised, and getting care in hospitals in the vicinity was difficult. “We do not have beds, what can we do. We have to refuse patients. We do not even know where to refer them to; it is not like there are hospitals in the city that have beds available,” said a doctor at a top private hospital in Delhi.

An associated problem was that of oxygen supply crunch. In many states, patients said hospitals and care centres reported a shortage of oxygen. States such as Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh issued orders mandating 50% of oxygen produced by factories be provided for medical purposes.

Increasing Covid deaths have also led to long delays at crematoriums. In Lucknow, workers at the three biggest crematoriums said they were working roundthe-clock, leading to a shortage of wood. In Ahmedabad, crematoriums reported a waiting time of five to 12 hours.