City doesn’t have enough ICU beds

How will 1,000 beds suffice when need is for 4,000, asks expert

SWAPNIL MISHRA Mumbai

For want of sufficient number of hospital beds to provide care to those who need it the most, Mumbai has become India's coronavirus capital. The city's health system is unable to provide beds for those in need of critical care during the pandemic. Mumbai has 535 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, as opposed to the actual requirement of around 3,000-4,000 beds for those who are in critical condition due to the infection.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has now decided to reserve an additional 500 ICU beds at private hospitals. Currently, they have also set up 60,000 beds at CCC1, CC2, DCH and DCC centres. This direly needed step has been taken after the BMC received several complaints from the relatives and friends of patients whose condition deteriorated or they died waiting for an ICU bed. Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said they have around 535 ICU beds for Covid-19 patients. After a meeting with private hospitals to include more 500 ICU beds under our capacity. This will help to increase the total ICU bed strength to 1,035 in Mumbai.

“We have also massively increased the number of beds with oxygen support. Since many Covid-19 patients suffer due to low oxygen levels, timely oxygen support has been found helpful in checking their condition from deteriorating further and obliviating the need to shift them to the ICU,” he said.

As on Wednesday, the city had 733 COVID-19 patients in a critical state. This included those in the ICU, on ventilator support or merely on oxygen support. Health experts said nearly 3-5 per cent of Covid patients need critical care and as per the current active cases in Mumbai, 500 to 800 ICU beds are needed to cater to all the patients. There are nearly 16,800 active cases in Mumbai. “Increasing the number of ICU beds to 1,000 will not be sufficient, as the city requires at least 4,000 ICU beds. The next 20 days are very crucial for us,” said Dr Om Shrivastava, infectious diseases expert.

Jumbo facilities like the one at the MMRDA ground in the BandraKurla Complex, which will open for patients on Friday, will have some mobile ICU beds, while the NSCI Dome in Worli will have 40 modular and 30 mobile ICU beds.