Every hospital, nursing home need to work hard to tackle challenges ahead: Expert

“Be it an orthopaedic hospital or one catering to ENT or gynaecology patients, there is a need for every hospital to put their shoulder to the wheel to tackle the Covid-19 crisis,” Dr Kelkar, medical director at Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital – a dedicated Covid hospital told The Indian Express

The pandemic has tested the resilience of healthcare systems, including hospitals, which were largely found unprepared. Medical expert Dr Dhananjay Kelkar said there was a need for every hospital, nursing home and medical college to put their shoulder to the wheel and tackle the Covid-19 crisis.

“Be it an orthopaedic hospital or one catering to ENT or gynaecology patients, there is a need for every hospital to put their shoulder to the wheel to tackle the Covid-19 crisis,” Dr Kelkar, medical director at Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital – a dedicated Covid hospital told The Indian Express. “There are 140 patients with Covid-19 and another 400 non-Covid patients admitted at the hospital,” Dr Kelkar said.

At Bharati hospital, Dr Sanjay Lalwani, medical director, said that despite the increasing burden of patients the situation will have to be dealt with. “We are managing as of now with the staff doctors from our different departments at the hospital,” an official at the hospital said. At present, they have 150 beds dedicated for Covid-19 patients, of which 30 are ICU beds.

At Symbiosis hospital, authorities are facing issues related to shortage of intensivists. “There is one intensivist managing 25 patients in the ICU during an eight-hour shift. This practice has been underway for the past month and we have requested health authorities to send another eight doctors for the ICU management of patients,” Dr Vijay Natarajan, CEO of Symbiosis hospital said. The hospital has 154 beds. “We have doctors for the ward level and OPD duty but it is at the ICU set up that we are facing challenges as our in house eight doctors have not taken a break from the work,” Dr Natarajan said.

More beds at Sassoon

At the government-run Sassoon General Hospital, services of at least 60-65 doctors, including intensivists and anaesthetists, were requisitioned from private hospitals. With private hospitals also being roped in the 80:20 scheme for providing care to Covid-19 patients , authorities said they needed their own intensivists to manage the patients. “We have now decided to recruit at least 160 doctors on a temporary basis,” said a highly placed official at Sassoon hospital. District Collector Naval Kishore Ram said they will be upgrading the ICU bed strength from 40 to 120 beds soon.