State running out of beds for Covid patients, warn officials

Gandhi Hosp, out of ICU beds, to send away all other patients

Telangana state is fast running out of beds for

Covid-19 patients. The deteriorating situation on Friday was such that the health department threw up its hands and ordered immediate conversion of Gandhi Hospital into a

Covid-19 treatment-only centre. The hospital, which the government always claimed has enough beds to treat Covid-19 patients, on Friday ran out of them, particularly those on which patients can be provided with ventilator or CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) support.

The health department issued orders on Friday directing the Gandhi Hospital authorities to immediately stop all services except Covid-19 care. From Saturday, the hospital will stop all its outpatient services and begin shifting non-Covid-19 patients after stabilising all critically ill patients in various departments to other state-run hospitals.

As on Thursday evening, TS had, according to the state health department,

10,279 Covid-19 patients admitted to various government and private hospitals. This number does not take into account the

Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals in the state on Friday as the department releases its official data only a day later. The total beds available for Covid-19 patients, both in the government and the private sector, according to the bulletin for Thursday, incidentally is 27,775. The rush for admissions was such that the 249 ICU beds for Covid19 patients in Gandhi Hospital, which the health department said were available as on Thursday 8 pm, were filled up by afternoon with a stream of

Covid-19 hit people arriving at the hospital.

Gandhi Hospital, as per the department, has a total of 500 ICU beds capable of providing patients with ventilator and CPAP systems. In addition, the hospital has 1,000 beds equipped with oxygen supply and

390 general beds. A circular issued by hospital superintendent Dr M. Raja Rao on Friday to heads of departments said they should “not admit nonCovid cases, but emergency and terminally ill patients should be stabilised and then transferred. Present cases in different wards should be cleared at the earliest and all beds should be made available for Covid patients.”

Amidst very real fears expressed by health department officials that the healthcare infrastructure may not be able to cope with the rush of Covid-19 patients, many private hospitals too began reporting that their

Covid-19 wards were full.

— DEEPAK DESHPANDE A display board atop the Gandhi Hospital’s name board suggests 960 out of 1,000 beds with oxygen supply were vacant, while 369 beds out of 500 in ICU were available on Friday morning. However, by the evening, the hospital authorities declared that beds with ventolators and CPAP machines were full.