HYDERABAD: State-run hospitals in Telangana are reporting robust admissions when it comes to non- Covid medical services. Major hospitals across districts are already full with in-patients and seeing record numbers of outpatient consultations as well.
In Gandhi Hospital for instance, apart from the 200-odd ICU beds kept aside for Covid patients, all non-Covid beds are occupied. A similar situation prevails in Nizamabad Government Hospital as well, with the hospital clocking over 900 minor and major surgeries in a month.
“From our experience, more people are opting for government services now which is why we are seeing admissions up to pre-Covid levels and more. This could be both because they trust government services and also due to high charges one may have to shell out in private hospitals,” said Dr. Kiran Madhala, HOD, Critical Care department.
Dr. Madhala’s team alone is handling 30 surgeries per day on average. As per the GoI’s e-hospitals dashboard, the Mahabubnagar government hospital, which is also one of the major hospitals in Southern Telangana, logged nearly 16,500 inpatient and outpatient services in November. The dashboard has 33 different hospitals, including PHCs, CHCs, Area Hospitals and District Hospitals mapped into it, which altogether registered 52,284 consultations in November.
However, while such signs show normalcy of services, there are also concerns about how hospitals would be able to cope in the face of an Omicron-triggered Covid-19 third wave. “As of now, Gandhi Hospital has kept 200-odd beds for Covid- 19, of which hardly 20 are occupied. Of these occupied beds, 6-7 are Black fungus cases. However, we are prepared to tackle any increase in the number of cases,” added Dr. Raja Rao, Gandhi Hospital Superintendent.
Meanwhile, the Health Department is keeping a close watch on the number of daily cases as the assumption is that within the first seven days of testing positive, hospitalisation is likely. This will give hospitals that much-needed buffer to discharge recovered patients and postpone elective surgeries and procedures.