JOIN USBengaluru govt hospitals to keep 1,000 beds for Covid patients
Anticipating a second wave of Covid-19 in Bengaluru, Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar announced on Thursday that 1,000 beds in government hospitals in the city would be set aside for novel coronavirus infections.
This will be in addition to the active Covid patients already being treated at government hospitals. As on March 17, there were 7,344 active patients being treated at government and private hospitals in the city.
The government hospitals that will reserve beds include Victoria Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Jayanagar General Hospital, CV Raman General Hospital and KC General Hospital.
The heads of these government hospitals and senior officials attended a meeting with the health minister to discuss the Covid-19 containment measures. Resident doctors will be put on duty for three months in these hospitals.
Representatives of private hospitals and medical colleges will be called to a meeting soon to discuss the bed-sharing ratio for Covid-19. Three Covid Care Centres (CCCs), amounting to 1,000 beds, are already on standby for asymptomatic Covid patients. Additionally, two AYUSH hospitals have also been selected as CCCs, which will be officially revealed only if the cases start rising.
There will be one ambulance per ward for Covid patients. In all, the city will have around 200 ambulances for 198 BBMP wards. The Covid war room will also start functioning as it did last year, and the government will monitor the situation using real-time data.
Private hospitals
The government will hold the first round of discussion with private hospitals this week to reserve beds for treatment of Covid-19 patients. "If the infection spreads more, we will rope in private hospitals to ensure sufficient availability of beds. The heads of respective institutions will be held accountable for any lapse," said the minister.
The only three government hospitals in the city with Covid patients in triple and double digits are Victoria Hospital (160), KC General Hospital (56), and Jayanagar General Hospital (37).
Dr Smitha Segu, Covid-19 nodal officer, Victoria Hospital said: "Since we have already started non-Covid services in 600 beds, we are giving 300 beds for Covid. Currently, we're treating 160 patients at the Trauma Care Centre and C Block. Last year, we had 550 Covid beds, whole hospital was reserved for Covid. We have to manage the manpower accordingly."