6 jumbo units to get 612 ICU beds
As of July 01, 2020
Growth rate for the last 7 days
till July 1
Cured & Discharged
Active Cases
MUMBAI: The six jumbo facilities temporarily set up across Mumbai to handle Covid-19 cases will now get intensive care units (ICU), adding 612 ICU beds to Mumbai’s total ICU bed capacity of 1,431.
Jumbo facilities were conceptualised and built by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as Covid care centres (CCC1 and CCC2) to quarantine high-risk contacts of Covid-19 patients and asymptomatic patients. They are now being converted into dedicated Covid health centres (DCHC) with oxygen beds and dedicated Covid hospitals (with ICU beds) (DCH).
Currently, 174 of the existing ICU beds are vacant, recording 88% occupancy. This is relatively better than the scenario is April and May, when ICU beds had 99% occupancy, and critical patients had to wait for up to even a few hours to find ICU beds. These beds are usually needed for severe to critical Covid-19 patients. With the fatality rate in Mumbai at 5.8%, having sufficient ICU beds is crucial. As per data up to June 30, there are 957 critical Covid-19 patients in Mumbai, at approximately 3% of Mumbai’s active cases.
BMC floated an expression of interest (EOI) last week, inviting bidders to provide these beds and maintain them for at least six months. Of the six jumbo facilities, the one at National Sports Complex of India (NSCI) currently has 10 ICU beds. As per the latest EOI, NSCI will have 50 ICU beds. The highest number of ICUS will be at the jumbo facility at NESCO compound in Goregaon (250), followed by BKC ground, Bandra (112), and 100 beds each at the facility at CIDCO Ground at Mulund, and Dahisar.
As part of the bid, the contractor will have to provide staff for management of the ICU facility, including one senior and one associate consultants, six resident doctors, 10 nurses, two technicians, and eight support staff, for care of a Covid-19 patient, for every 10 ICU beds. A separate cost head has been created under BMC’S budget 2020-2021 to keep track of expenditure on jumbo facilities, and each facility has been given a ‘cost centre’.
P Velarasu, additional municipal commissioner in charge of projects in BMC, said, “In case of cost centres, accounting is done for a specific geographical unit. As jumbo facilities are newly created, they have been given cost centres. We can identify the expenditure incurred by a specific facility by looking at the cost centre.” So far, BMC has spent a total of ₹630 crore on Covid-19 relief.