PUDUCHERRY: JIPMER is working to increase ICU beds to 100 from 89 at present for COVID-19 patients, but faces challenges in getting adequate oxygen support, said the institute's Director Dr Rakesh Agarwal.
Since the institute is preferentially admitting patients with severe illness, it has been trying to convert more of its oxygen beds to ICU beds, which are likely to reach 100 by the end of May, with the arrival of more ventilators, he said in a statement.
JIPMER, over the last few weeks, has consistently stepped up its efforts to cater to seriously ill Covid-19 patients, who require advanced medical interventions due to multiple co-morbidities. Its current Covid-19 bed strength is 528 beds. Importantly, it includes 89 intensive care unit beds, each with ventilator support, and 368 beds with oxygen support for treatment of moderately severe to severe Covid patients, said the Director.
In addition, the Institute has nearly 510 patients admitted in various non-Covid wards for the treatment of serious and complex diseases, who need special or multi-disciplinary interventions which are not available elsewhere. These include patients with cancer who are admitted for radiation therapy or chemotherapy, patients needing emergency surgeries, women with complicated pregnancy needed specialized types of delivery, patients with trauma, those needing neurosurgery or cardiac interventions, etc. In addition, treatment of patients with chronic long-standing diseases such as patients on dialysis is ongoing without any disruption, said the Director.
While providing services for the treatment of patients with Covid and essential non-Covid services, the institute has to ensure that the treatment facilities, including the existing oxygen plant capacity, work within safe limits. To this end, the usage of oxygen and the pressure in the oxygen distribution system at sites spread across the institute are being monitored.
Since the institute is preferentially admitting patients with severe disease, most of its more than 500 patients with Covid need oxygen and that too in large volumes in addition to the oxygen needs of the sick non-Covid patients who outnumber Covid patients. The total oxygen usage in for the institute is already several-fold higher than that when the hospital was working at full capacity prior to the pandemic. Hence, the oxygen distribution system is currently working at its maximum capacity. This is the most important limitation in further increasing the number of Covid-19 beds, said the Director.
Further, for the type of patients with Covid-19 that the institute is caring for, a very large amount of highly-trained manpower is essential. With several of the healthcare workers and their family members themselves being affected in the current deluge of Covid-19, ensuring sufficient staff in all shifts in Covid ICUs, etc is itself challenging.
Several statements have appeared in various media asking JIPMER to further increase its Covid beds. The institute has, from the beginning of the Covid pandemic, focused its efforts on providing care for serious patients, in keeping with its role as a tertiary-care institution, instead of having many beds for healthy asymptomatic or mild cases since that can be done by other governmental, non-governmental and voluntary welfare and political organizations.
Thus, since May 2020, JIPMER has admitted and treated over 7566 Covid patients. In addition, 5016 Covid patients from Puducherry and 607 Covid patients from Tamil Nadu were cared for at their homes, through regular monitoring by JIPMER home isolation team of 7 doctors, 15 nurses and 2 social workers. Furthermore, JIPMER has admitted non-Covid patients continuously and provided tele-consultation outpatient services to 6 lakhs 99 thousand and two hundred and seventy seven patients (6,99,277) till date, said the Director.
While doing this, essential non-Covid services, including emergency cardiac, neurological, trauma and emergency complications of patients who are on long standing treatment have been continued. Renal replacement therapy in both adults and children, in the form of peritoneal dialysis, haemodialysis and continuous renal replacement therapy, immunization services in children, vaccination for Covid have continued. Paediatric emergency treated an average of 1650 every month and admits an average of 270 children every month for non-Covid diseases, he said.
With healthcare facilities stretched to the limits, the Director appealed to the general public to take utmost precautions and follow the guidelines of the government to prevent further spread of the virus by strict adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour such as masks, hand hygiene and avoiding unnecessary travel as well as crowding.