BENGALURU: At least 80-100 patients are brought to the emergency wing of the government-run Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research (
SJICSR
) every night, say doctors working there. While not all patients landing at the hospital between 8pm and 8am would have had a heart attack, chest pain at night and in the wee hours triggers panic.
Night admissions are on the rise by 5-10% compared to pre-Covid years, said doctors, adding on some nights, the number of cases even touches 150. Institute director
Dr CN Manjunath
said night cases are burdening the hospital, but doctors on duty have to cater to all. The cases are not only from Bengaluru, but other districts too.
“Several private and district hospitals don’t attend to cardiac cases at night due to lack of specialists on night shift. Some don’t want to take a risk. At Jayadeva, specialists are available round the clock and the emergency section is well-equipped. However, most of these cases can be handled by the medicine department at district hospitals and government medical hospitals, but all patients are referred here,” said
Dr Manjunath
.
With the recently added 350-bed Infosys block, SJICSR, Bengaluru is now a 1,000-bed facility. “This is the largest heart care destination in southeast Asia. We are a 1,800-bed hospital if we put together our units in Mysuru and Kalaburagi. We have built a reputation and don’t want to lose it now when the number of patients is increasing,” said Dr Manjunath. All seven ICUs of the hospitals are full all the time, he added. The hospital gets 1,500 patients at its outpatient wing during daytime.
Instances of chest pain at night include cases of gastritis, massive heart attacks and kidney failure, and any kind of chest pain triggers panic in the patient and his/her family members, said Dr Manjunath.
The hospital conducted 42,865 cath lab procedures in 2021 after a dip in 2020, during the pandemic, when 30,886 were done. The recovery is continuing even now. There are days when around 150 patients reach the hospital at night complaining of chest pain and doctors scramble for beds. Over 50% of the patients rushing to the emergency at night require admission, say doctors.
Dr
Shruthi Vittala Rao Kulkarni
, pursuing DM in cardiology, is one of the doctors regularly working on night shifts. “It’s hectic and stressful. The regular OPD closes at 5pm, after which the emergency OPD gets crowded. During our shift from 8pm to 8am, we sometimes see as many as 150 cases back to back. This includes one or two brought-dead cases too. In fact, 50-60% of the patients coming at night are aged 30-50 years, which is a worrisome trend,” she said.
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