Lucknow hospitals running out of ICU beds for critical Covid-19 patients

LUCKNOW: Beds in the intensive care units (ICU) of

city hospitals

are fast running out due to a surge in

Covid-19 cases

.


Over 500 cases were added in 48 hours till Thursday evening, taking the active number of cases in the city to 1,971. Of these, about 80% are asymptomatic, 15% with mild symptoms and 5% needing oxygen support or

critical care

.

At present, there are 3,000 general beds and over 150 ICU beds in city hospitals. Though authorities have increased the number of beds for asymptomatic and mild symptom cases by creating new medical facilities and roping in

private hospitals

, they too might fall short in the coming days if the spike continues.

While chief medical officer Dr Narendra Agarwal was not available for comment, UP director general health Dr Mithilesh Chaturvedi said, “There will be no shortage of ICU beds as we are roping in private hospitals with critical care facilities. We are increasing the number of general beds to 6,000. Paid facilities in hotels will also be functional soon.”

However, as on Thursday evening, all 18 ICU beds in

KGMU

and 17 in RML Institute of Medical Sciences were occupied. Over 90% out of 80 ICU beds in SGPGI were also full. Similarly, only seven out of 20 ICU beds in Era’s Lucknow Medical College and Hospital were unoccupied.

Patients with mild symptoms are admitted to general bed. In RMLIMS, only seven general beds out of 100 were vacant on Thursday evening, while in KGMU, 135 general beds out of 200 were occupied.

In SGPGI’s

Rajdhani Covid Hospital

, 90% of the total 130 general beds were said to be full, sources said.

Occupancy in other government hospitals and private medical institutes designated for Covid-19 treatment was between almost 80% .

SGPGI director Prof RK Dhiman said, “We are a level-3 treatment centre. Till now, we were libral about taking patients but now, since we are approaching our capacity, we have started following criteria for level-3 admissions very strictly. This means we are not taking patients who do not fall in very severe category.”

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