Srinagar hospitals stare at bed crisis as Covid-19 cases see sharp rise

A health worker takes nasal swab samples from people to test for the Covid-19 coronavirus infection at a testing center in Srinagar. Credit: AFP Photo

Amid the steep rise in Covid-19 cases, hospitals in Srinagar are staring at a bed crisis with most of them underscoring that their critical care units are all occupied.

However, as the beds are filling up fast in the city hospitals, dedicated hospitals across the peripheries continue to lie unused. Currently, out of the 328 beds allocated to Covid-19 in Srinagar-based SMHS Hospital, SKIMS Soura and Chest Diseases Hospital, 205 are occupied.

From April 1 till April 15, the occupancy of hospitals in Kashmir has risen from 139 beds to 354 beds, an increase of 250 per cent. The rise in admissions has been exponential in April as per official data while the capacity had been curtailed in December when Kashmir saw a sharp drop in daily positive cases.

“The surgeries, which are not emergencies, will be avoided and admission will also be restricted according to the number of beds in the city hospitals,” a senior health department official told DH.

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He said the healthcare system in peripheries could be augmented to share the load of Covid-19 amidst growing fears of a further surge in cases. “But unfortunately, for the past one year, neither has the manpower been allocated for the management of cases in these facilities, nor has the infrastructure been augmented,” he rued.

A doctor at tertiary-care SKIMS hospital said the low number of oxygen beds in peripheries was the main cause of the referrals. “Beds have been allocated, but there is very little accomplished in terms of oxygen support,” he said.

The number of active Covid-19 positive cases in J&K crossed the10,000-mark after six months on Thursday. While Kashmir has 6,169 active positive cases, Jammu has 3,871 cases.

However, Director of Health Services Kashmir, Dr Mushtaq Ahmed Rather said that the hospitals are admitting the patients and they are ready to deal with the situation. “We have never closed any facility,” he said and added that the augmentation was “in progress” in terms of oxygen support at these facilities.

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