As cases fall, over 65% beds for Covid patients vacant at Delhi hospitals

With coronavirus cases here witnessing a decline in the last few days, over 65 per cent of beds for COVID-19 patients in the city hospitals are vacant, data on Delhi Corona app showed.

However, the bed occupancy is higher in private hospitals as compared to government-run facilities.

At the LNJP Hospital, which is the Delhi government's biggest COVID facility, 1545 of 2000 beds are vacant, while the GTB Hospital has a vacancy of 1321 beds against its strength of 1500, according to Delhi Corona app.

Indraprastha Apollo Hospital has 110 out of 300 beds vacant, while only 53 out of 250 beds are unoccupied in Max Smart Saket. At Sir Gangaram Hospital, 60 beds are vacant out of 200 beds earmarked for coronavirus patients.

Out of the total 15,822 beds for COVID-19 patients in Delhi, only 5,402 are occupied, according to the Corona app, which provides the latest details about the availability of beds and ventilators in the city hospitals.

Also, 561 of 1,321 COVID-19 ICU beds with ventilators are occupied, accounting for over 42 per cent of vacant status, data on the app showed.

Delhi recorded 32 COVID-19 fatalities on Monday, taking the death toll to 5,542, while 1,947 fresh cases took the tally to over 2.92 lakh. The city reported 1,947 new cases on Monday, 2,683 on Sunday, 2,258 on Saturday, 2,920 on Friday, 3,037 on Thursday, and 3,390 on Wednesday.

Dr BL Sherwal, medical director of Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, said, "We saw an increase in hospital admissions around September 16-17 when the cases saw a spike. But now the hospital admissions have decreased and discharges have increased. Beds occupancy has gone down.

The awareness and home isolation measures of the Delhi government are to be credited for this, he said.

The COVID-19 dedicated facility has 500 beds, of which 393 are vacant. He said nearly 90 patients are in ICU.

Indraprastha Apollo Hospital's Dr Rajesh Chawla said private hospitals are seeing more occupancy as people, who can afford treatment there, prefer them over government facilities. "We had a peak and then it came down and then it went up but now we are seeing a decline in admissions," he said.

Dr Mugdha Tapdiya, senior consultant, internal medicine, Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj, said there was a time when it was very difficult to find beds in hospitals but now the situation has become a little better.

"The ICU beds are still occupied because once the patient goes in the ICU, they take time and if they go on a ventilator, the recovery takes more. Sometimes, it takes 10-15 days and sometimes even months. There is no movement from the ICU to the outside that is why it is difficult to get ICU beds," she said.

All seven coronavirus ICU beds with ventilators at the hospital are occupied, while 12 out of 28 ICU beds without ventilators are vacant, according to Delhi Corona app.