With Covid-19 cases consistently dipping in the industrial city of Pimpri-Chinchwad for the past 10 days, nearly 60 per cent of the beds in civic and private hospitals are now vacant.
Ventilator beds in civic hospitals, however, still remain scarce, officials said, partly because patients from private hospitals too shift to government facilities once their condition worsens and the cost of treatment rises.
According to the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) health department, of the total 10,884 beds available in civic and private hospitals, by Sunday afternoon, 6,500, or 60 per cent of the beds were vacant, while 4,384 were occupied.
As many as 2,328 oxygen beds were vacant. Of these, 555 were vacant in private hospitals and 1,773 in civic hospitals. Only six ventilators were available in civic hospitals, while 40 were free in private hospitals by Sunday afternoon.
“In civic hospitals, it does not take time for ventilator beds to get filled as patients from five civic hospitals are shifted there as per the requirement,” said PCMC health chief Dr Anil Roy.
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Dr Rajendra Wable, dean of YCM hospital, said,”PCMC runs five hospitals. It has banned shifting of ICU patients of private hospitals to civic hospitals. This is because many smaller hospitals seek to shift their patients to civic hospitals only when their condition deteriorates. At YCMH, we have patients either on oxygen support or ventilator support. Some of those who are on oxygen support require ventilator support and are shifted there. Also, we get patients from our other four facilities when their condition turns series. In short, ventilator beds are generally not available in civic hospitals,” he said.
PCMC health chief Dr Pavan Salve said,”Unlike last month, this month, we have seen a consistent fall in numbers. In the last 10 days, we have seen less than 1,000 positive cases. As a result, a large number of vacant beds are now available in hospitals.”
Dr Salve said as many as 5,374 COVID-19 patients recovered on Saturday, which was among the highest recovery figures registered on a single day. He said till date, 2,46,054 citizens have tested positive for COVID-19. “Of these, 2.34,392 patients have recovered.
Meanwhile, the Bhosari MIDC police on Saturday took action against 70 persons caught violating Covid norms during their morning walk. A collective fine of Rs 35,000 was recovered from them.