BENGALURU: with the tertiary-care Victoria and Bowring and Lady Curzon hospitals, which are run by the government, turning into Covid-designated facilities, other government healthcare units are bearing the brunt of increased patient inflows. Worryingly, they are also running out of beds.
It has been more than two months since Victoria and Bowring hospitals, which are visited mainly by people from economically weaker sections, were converted into Covid facilities. The fallout is that other government-run facilities are facing the brunt of patient load and the doctors say they are under tremendous pressure.
A doctor from KC General Hospital, requesting anonymity, said, “We are getting patients from Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru, Kunigal, Magadi, Doddabalapur, Nelamangala and Ramnagara. We see around 550-700 outpatients a day and this has put us under a lot of pressure. Many of these patients are coming here for tertiary care, while we are a secondary care hospital and cannot provide such treatments to them. Earlier, we would refer them to Victoria or Bowring Hospitals, but now we cannot do that.
The patients too are complaining.” KC General Hospital has 360 beds, of which 70 are dedicated to Covid symptomatic patients, who are tested for Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) and Influenza Like Illness (ILI). Since 200 beds are already occupied and six beds assigned to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the hospital is hardly left with any beds. “So far, we haven’t denied treatment to any patient, but it has increased our workload. We have to screen the patients, check whether they are SARI or ILI cases, manage the state Covid war room and also take care of outpatients and inpatients. We desperately need more staff,” said another senior doctor.
A doctor at Jayanagar General Hospital said, “We are all exhausted taking care of so many patients. We cannot refer them to private hospitals as majority of them are from lower-income groups. We are trying to manage the situation, but we don’t know how long this can continue.” A doctor from CV Raman Nagar Hospital too agreed that they are facing problems because non-Covid services are shut at Bowring and Victoria hospitals.
Govt health centres to reopen OPD, IPD services
Bengaluru: District hospitals, which were converted into Covid-19 treatment centres, are set to reopen their out-patient (OPD) and in-patient departments (IPD) to other consultations. With this, those seeking treatment at the OPD and IPD units will have to enter the hospital through a different entrance from that kept for those seeking treatment for Covid-19. Precautions should also be taken to ensure that general patients do not come in contact with corona-positive patients, while hospital staff should not deputed in both the places at the same time. ENS