Mumbai hospitals stare at bed crunch amid spike in Covid-19 cases

As Covid cases rise, pvt hospitals say situation could get critical in 2 weeks if momentum continues

With Maharashtra seeing a steady spike in Covid-19 cases, private hospitals in the capital feel there could be a bed crunch if the momentum continues for a couple of weeks.
 
Mumbai added 2,877 cases on Thursday. Of the 13,062 beds in dedicated Covid-19 hospitals (DCHs) and dedicated Covid healthcare centres (DCHCs), close to 6,000 are occupied. While the civic body did not give a break-up, the occupancies are in hospitals primarily, said industry sources. Of the 1,537 ICUs, around 883 were occupied as of March 17 in Mumbai.
 
The administrator of a leading private hospital in the city said there is a rush for admission in hospitals. “The bed occupancy levels in the top 8-10 private hospitals are high as people prefer to get admitted there. The beds in the state-run facilities like the DCHCs are relatively empty,” the person said.
 
DCHCs are the make-shift centres with oxygen beds and other medical support.
 
Dr Rahul Pandit — director of critical care at Fortis Hospitals Mumbai, and member of Maharashtra’s Covid task force — said at Fortis, almost 90 per cent of the Covid-19 beds were occupied.

 
He added that if the momentum continued, then in one or two weeks, the situation could get critical.
 
Adding to the woes, smaller private hospitals have now opted out of Covid care. “Many smaller hospitals, which had taken Covid-19 patients, are now focusing on treating the non-Covid-19 patients as the footfalls have risen. They do not wish to get back to Covid-19 care with capped rates of treatment. This is raising the pressure on the larger hospitals like us,” said one hospital administrator.
 
A Mulund-based private nursing home owner, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out: “We had chipped in during the peak of the pandemic. There was no non-Covid19 footfall at that time. So it was easy to isolate and treat Covid-19 patients. Now, with our smaller infrastructure it is difficult.”
He added that the civic body had asked them to get back to non-Covid19 care when the cases went down.
 
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said they have asked all private hospitals to be on stand-by mode, including the jumbo facilities which had not been operating since the case count went down.
 
“It does not make economic sense to run a jumbo centre unless the beds are occupied. The overheads are high. So we had shut them down,” the official said.
 
However, most patients opting for home care has come as a relief.
 
Joy Chakraborty, chief operating officer of Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai, said that of the new cases, around 25 per cent are going for hospitalisation. “Almost 85 per cent of our Covid-19 beds are occupied, including the ICU beds,” he added.
 
The BMC has sent strict directives to private hospitals regarding new admissions, fast discharge and has also asked them to reserve 80 per cent of their Covid-19 beds for admissions through the central disaster management wing.