BENGALURU: With Karnataka seeing a steady decline in fresh Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks owing to the lockdown, the demand for oxygen beds has also fallen giving a much-needed breather to hospitals.According to the data from the state Covid-19 war room, 63.64 per cent of 48,167 oxygen beds (30,655) were occupied on June 3. However, on June 17, only 32.53 per cent of 48,105 oxygen beds were occupied (15,653). At Victoria Hospital, which is the largest tertiary care centre for Covid in Bengaluru, 361 of 416 HDU beds are vacant.
Dr Prasanna HM, president, Private Hospital and Nursing Homes Association and Managing Director of Pristine Hospital said, “Overall admissions, including the demand for oxygen beds, have gone down. More than 50 per cent of the beds are vacant as opposed to the chaos we had earlier when there was a surge in cases. We are observing this fast decline since May 22. At present, there are more asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients who do not require hospitalisation.” At Pristine Hospital alone, there were 8-10 new admissions each day, which has now come down to 1-2.
As per the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) bed portal, of the 7,172 allocated government quota general beds, 6,750 are available. Of the 4,913 government quota High Dependency Unit (HDU) beds, 4,243 are vacant and of the 570 government quota ICU beds, 357 are unoccupied. Similarly, of the 643 government quota ICU ventilator beds, 288 are available.
At Ace Multi-Speciality Hospital, there is no demand for oxygen beds. The number of cases have come down to the tune of 1,500 per day in Bengaluru from the peak of 25,000 earlier, said Dr Jagadish Hiremath Medical, Director, Ace Multi-Speciality Hospital. “It is important to understand that not all Covid-19 patients need oxygen. It is only the 3-5% of the infected lot who might need it. As cases have gone down due to lockdown and vaccination, the percentage of people needing oxygen beds has fallen to a level wherein just government hospitals would suffice in terms of providing oxygenated beds to patients,”
Dr Hiremath said.
At Regal Multi-Speciality Hospital, doctors have observed a 50-60 per cent dip in the demand for oxygen beds. “We have divided the hospital into Covid division with ICU beds and non-Covid division with ICU beds. We are getting non-Covid cases too, with problems relating to urology mostly,” Dr Suri Raju V, MD of the hospital, said.