TS has 1,782 ICU beds for Covid, says Centre
The Central Government on Tuesday said that Telangana state has a total of 1,782 dedicated Covid-19 beds in intensive care unit (ICU) wards in the state’s hospitals. Union minister of state for health Ashwini Kumar Choubey informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday in a written reply to a question that this was as per information provided by the state on the Covid-19 Portal as on September 14.
The number of dedicated Covid-19 ICU beds in the state , as per the data uploaded by the state, covers both government and private hospitals, Choubey said. Data provided by Choubey in Parliament, however, is at variance with the information released by the state government through its daily Covid-19 bulletins for the state.
As per the latest bulletin on Tuesday, for data pertaining up to 8 pm on Monday (September 14), the state government-run hospitals alone have 1,222 ICU beds equipped with ventilators and Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) machines. The bulletin also says that in addition to the 1,222 ICU beds in 42 government hospitals, the 204 private hospitals in the state which have been permitted to treat
Covid-19 patients, have an additional 2,129 ICU beds equipped with ventilators and CPAP machines.
As per Telangana’s official Covid-19 bulletin, which the state health department says is released in the ‘High Court Format’ — providing details as directed by the Telangana High Court — the state, as on September 14, had a total of 3,351 ICU beds in its
Covid-19-designated hospitals in the government and private sector.
The Centre, however, on Tuesday said the state has only 1,782 dedicated Covid
19 ICU beds. In the same bulletin, the state also says in a table titled ‘Details of Infrastructure/Bed Occupancy Under Government’, that the state has 2,251 ICU beds. However, this table does not make it clear if this figure pertains to the total ICU beds available in government hospitals or if the reference to this figure is about infrastructure available for managing
Covid-19 patients.