HOSPITAL BEDS UNDER STRESS AS COVID-19 CASES SURGE

As much as 96 per cent of all intensive care beds are now occupied by COVID patients

MUSCAT: With a rising number of hospitalisations and ICU admissions due to the COVID-19, just 14 beds are available in intensive care units (ICUs) across the country.

As 751 patients were taken to hospitals, the number of admissions in the ICUs rose to 234. The highest figure during the pandemic so far was reached on 11 April, 2021. 96 per cent of all beds in intensive care are now occupied by COVID patients.

The total number of cases in the country stands at 173,029, inclusive of 153,986 recoveries and 1,789 deaths.

Although more beds in intensive care are required to accommodate future admissions, Dr Faryal Al Lawati, the head of the Infectious Diseases Unit at the Royal Hospital, said it is not as easy as it seems to expand ICUs, owing to a number of reasons.

Expansion issues

“Vacant beds in hospitals cannot be occupied by just COVID-19 patients, and if we do increase the number of beds for them, by converting existing beds to one designed for intensive care, it means we have to reduce other health services provided, in exchange for more coronavirus admissions,” explained Al Lawati, who is also a senior infectious diseases consultant at the hospital.

“If the rise in the number of COVID cases does continue, the healthcare sector in the hospitals will be forced to halt some of their health services provided to ordinary people – many of these are essential functions,” she said.

“We only have a limited number of staff in hospitals in Oman,” she said. “It is difficult to provide staff to cover this increase at present: Three shifts per ICU patient are needed every day to provide care for them, which means each patient requires three nurses per shift to take care of him on a daily basis.

“When the numbers of COVID cases increase, other departments of the health sector have to release their medical teams and transfer them to the coronavirus wards or the ICU so that they can cover the shortage of staff we face in treating these patients,” admitted Al Lawati.

“Each hospital has a certain number of beds and assigned medical staff, that has not changed since their inception.”