THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: District’s hospitals are bursting at the seams with the increasing daily caseload. The demand for ICU and ventilator beds is increasing and patients under home isolation are having to wait for hours to get hospital care. According to authorities, the machinery is not ready for the spike in the second wave expected around mid-May.
Experts are warning of an exponential surge in Covid cases across the state in the next few weeks. The second wave of the pandemic is expected to hit its peak around mid-May. The district health authorities here are on their toes, mobilising resources and ramping up infrastructure to get the situation under control. On Sunday, the number of active cases in the district crossed the 15,000 mark and the authorities are struggling as the demand for medical care i s increasing. Even patients with severe symptoms under home isolation have to now wait for hours and days to get medical care, as mos t hospi tal s are at ful l capacity.
More critical care infrastructure needed
As of Sunday, 126 out of the 140 ICU beds at public health care institutions and 108 out of 111 ICU beds in the private sector are occupied in the capital. Making critical care available to those in need would be crucial for the capital to curb a spike in mortality rate. In the past week, around 32 Covid deaths were reported in the district, taking the total death toll to 958. According to experts, increasing infrastructure for critical care would be crucial to saving lives. “We have increased the number of beds for Covid patients at MCH to 1,400. As many as 200 more ICU beds have been added.
This capacity will be ramped up by the end of this week. More staff would be deployed,” said a health department official. He added that bed occupancy is increasing at a ver y fast pace. “The second wave is more aggressive. It’s high time we take over private hospitals and arrange more ICU beds. The situation is unpredictable and if the caseload increases drastically all of a sudden, our existing facilities won’t be enough. The available beds are very limited, and everyone is already exhausted. We are well aware of the situation in many other states where people are struggling and dying without getting treatment,” said a senior official of the health department.
Three private medical colleges step in
The di s t r ict administration and the health authorities have urged three private medical college hospitals in the district to earmark at least 50 per cent of their beds for Covid patients. The state had already directed all private hospitals to earmark 25 per cent of their beds for Covid care. In Thiruvananthapuram, SRM Medical College Hospital, SUT Vattappara and Gokulam Medical College Hospital have agreed to give a minimum of 50 per cent of their facilities towards Covid care. However, the proposal of taking over facilities from the private sector for patient management is yet to gain momentum due to lack of human resources. The proposed takeover of SUT Royal Hospital, a couple of blocks at KIMS and Ananthapuri Hospitals are under way.
The authorities are hesistant to make effort as the implementation would require more funds. “Human resource is the biggest scarcity. Even if we can come up with more medical infrastructure, we will need doctors and medical staff. It’s foolish to wait for the system to collapse and then make efforts to arrange facilities. We will hit the peak in another three weeks and this is not the time to hold back. The government should utilise more funds to mobilise resources so that more lives are saved,” said an official.