Amid a record surge in Delhi’s daily COVID 19 tally, there is an increase in the number of severely ill coronavirus patients. This has been reflected in the 100 percent occupancy of ICU beds with ventilators in Delhi’s biggest and the most prestigious private hospitals, very few are available in the government hospitals. Today’s morning data on Delhi governments mobile app on all COVID related information shows that currently 66 percent or 825 put of 1,244 of Delhi’s total ICU beds with ventilators are already occupied. Max healthcare, Fortis, Apollo and Batra are among the biggest private hospitals in Delhi. According to the app, at 8 am this morning, all the 84 ICU beds with ventilators in these facilities were occupied. With only get ICU ventilator beds available, the government hospitals are also facing very heavy caseload of severely ill patients. Only 5 out of 50 beds with ventilators were available at the country’s premiere All India Institute of Medical Sciences – New Delhi. The situation was worse at Safdarjung – Delhi’s largest government hospital – only with 1 bed out of 54 vacant, while only 11 out of 200 ICU ventilator beds were available at the 900 bed Lok Nayak Jayprakash Narayan hospital, a COVID only facility. “With the increase in the number of cases, we will have to start optimising our resources and may have to follow a strict cut-off like what was being followed in June – only those with oxygen saturation below 94% were being admitted to hospitals. However, by then sometimes the condition already starts deteriorating,” said Dr Neeraj Gupta, professor of pulmonology at Safdarjung hospital.The beds data from the Delhi Corona application reflect a drastic imbalance in people’s preference, with large private hospitals being the most sought after. The high occupancy also extends to ICU beds without ventilators in the top eight private hospitals, where 85% of these were occupied. In three of these, Max Patparganj, Fortis Shalimar Bagh and Apollo, there were zero vacancies even though 35% of such beds were reported vacant across the city. “It is the big private hospitals that have started getting full. And, this is mainly because many prefer to go to these possibly the big multi-speciality ones that have doctors from all disciplines available,” said Dr SK Sarin, director of Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences and chair of the first expert committee that had been set up by the Delhi government to manage Covid-19 in the city.
