BENGALURU: As the Covid second wave rages on, private hospitals are asking patients to hunt for ICU beds on their own. A woman Covid patient, 44-yearold Chandra Kumari (name changed), who was being treated at Ravi Kirloskar Hospital, was told to find an ICU bed as her condition started deteriorating with her oxygen saturation levels dipping.
When her family members called up the BBMP helpline, they were told to go to a hospital in Rajarajeshwarinagar where she had been allocated a bed. As they were getting ready to leave, the hospital called them up and asked them not to come as no ICU beds were available. The anxious relatives had not found a bed, even 24 hours after the search.
CMR Director General Balram Bhargava has warned that the second wave has been more severe than the first one, and people are turning critical within the first week of the infection, while it was two weeks or more in the first wave. In another instance, Amrutesh Sharma (54) (name changed), who was suffering from Covid pneumonia and desaturation and has comorbidities, reached Sagar Hospital after searching for beds for two days. His oxygen saturation level was 70 without oxygen support.
The day he got admitted, his condition started worsening, and by evening, the hospital told him to vacate as there were no ICU beds. He managed to get a bed through the BBMP helpline at a Covid ward. His condition continued to worsen and early on Thursday morning, he needed ventilation support and plasma transfusion. He continued to be critical on Friday. Not just private hospitals, even government facilities are asking critical patients to move out as they do not have ICU beds.
A 60-year-old patient at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases was asked to shift to another facility around 10 am on Thursday. His relatives were told to search for an ICU bed as his condition had deteriorated. A senior doctor said that any facility can be converted into a temporary ICU and monitored remotely if there is a shortage of experts. He advised that the government should divide hospitals into primary, secondary and tertiary care units and allocate beds to patients depending on their condition.