Over 50% Covid beds occupied in Chandigarh's govt hospitals

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 4

With a spike in Covid cases, the government-run hospitals in Chandigarh have been witnessing a steady rise in the patient count.

City hospitals have already surpassed 50 per cent occupancy and ICU beds have been exhausted in a few of these. According to doctors, the severity of the disease in Covid patients coming to the hospital is higher this time as compared to the previous wave. At the PGI, there is a capacity of 300 beds for Covid patients of which 178 have been occupied.

Of the total Covid beds, 50 are for ICU and all of these are currently occupied by critically ill patients.

Prof GD Puri, Dean (Academics) and Head, Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, PGI, said: “A lot of younger patients in the age group of less than 50 are coming to the hospital with high severity of Covid. There are a lot of patients from nearby states as well. Some of them reach the hospital only at a later stage, which is also increasing the mortality rate. Besides, a lot of surgical and trauma patients are testing positive. However, we are trying our best to save patients with Covid acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).”

Professor Puri said there was a need for other medical facilities to increase critical care beds. The institute was already converting wards into critical care areas, he said. “All our emergency severe acute respiratory infections wards are full in addition to the Nehru Hospital Extension (NHE).”

Around 55 per cent beds at Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, have been exhausted with Covid patients. Of the 200 beds, 77 are occupied by Covid patients and 44 by suspected cases. Of the six ICU beds with ventilators, four are occupied with severely ill Covid patients. Besides, 11 Covid patients are admitted to the gynae ward of the hospital.

Dr VK Nagpal, Medical Superintendent of the GMSH-16, said: “The spike in cases has also resulted in increased rush at the hospital. We have stopped elective surgeries and diverted all our resources and manpower to Covid management. The flu clinic is open till 8 pm in the evening.”

At the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, 42 Covid beds of the 51 are currently occupied, while 29 patients are admitted to the south campus of the medical college. Dr Jasvinder Kaur, Director, GMCH-32, said: “We have operationalised the Sector 48 Civil Hospital for Covid patients again. Increased severity has been observed among patients coming to our hospital.”

The institute is planning to augment the Covid facility in the coming days.

Need to open care centres: Docs

Doctors have been urging the authorities to open Covid care centres to ease the burden on hospitals. Many mild patients have also occupied beds at the GMSH-16 as only one care centre – Dhanwantry Hospital — is operational in the city. Arun Gupta, Principal Secretary, Health, UT, confirmed that Sood Dharamshala will be made operational in two to three days for Covid patients.

UT sees 341 cases

Chandigarh: The city recorded 341 fresh Covid cases on Sunday, taking the number of active cases to 3,150. With one more death, the toll has reached 383. The total number of cases in the UT has reached 28,194. As many as 352 patients were cured. TNS

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