HYDERABAD: Private tertiary care hospitals in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits have been recording a steep rise in occupancy of Covid-19 beds for the past couple of weeks, with some well-known ones reaching full capacity.
As on date, of the 2,228 beds occupied in private hospitals across Telangana, 1,281 are in the GHMC limits. An analysis of the medical bulletin shows that even though there are around 81 major private hospitals in the GHMC limits, only 16 have over 50 beds reserved for Covid-19 treatment. Of these 16, nearly a dozen have reached almost full capacity and the others are 50 per cent full. The number of smaller private hospitals with Covid-19 beds has increased in Hyderabad, but the patient rush is higher at super-speciality private hospitals, where the number of beds has fallen.
In August 2020, there were 4,641 beds available in 60 hospitals in the GHMC limits, which fell to 3,131 across 81 hospitals on March 31, 2021. Apollo Hospitals, which had over 900 beds in August, now has hardly 100. Similar is the case with Sunshine, KIMS and Care, among other big hospitals, which had 150-300 beds earlier but slowly reduced it to 100-odd beds. Health Department officials have pointed out that the pattern of bed occupancy is indicative of the second wave.
Officials from the Telangana Health Department have pointed out that the pattern of bed occupancy — wherein the number of beds available overall is less but the occupancy is high in some private hospitals — is indicative of the second wave of the pandemic.
“Those, who were not infected during the first phase of the pandemic, are getting sick now. This includes many economically well-off people living in apartments and gated communities in the GHMC limits, who could afford to isolate themselves earlier. Now that they are going about their daily business, they are getting exposed to the infection,” an official told Express.