As cases rise, Bengaluru runs short of beds

Bengaluru: On Saturday, a 52-year-old man from Nagarathpet in Central Bengaluru developed severe symptoms of Covid-19 that included breathlessness. In what turned out to be a harrowing experience for the family, he was taken to at least 30 hospitals in the city, but none admitted him citing non-availability of beds to treat Covid patients.
He died on Sunday, a few minutes after government-run Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital — a dedicated Covid-treatment facility — agreed to admit him, said the man’s nephew.

While private hospitals were not even ready to test him for the infection blaming lack of beds, Bowring hospital insisted on a Covid-19 test report before giving him admission, said the nephew. “After all options dried up, we took my uncle to Bowring hospital on Saturday night. But they refused to admit. The next day, we somehow managed to give the patient’s swab samples to a testing lab and it was only then that Bowring took him in. But within five minutes, uncle expired,” he told ET. The test result wasn’t available till Monday night.

As Bengaluru has started reporting a spike in Covid-19 cases, with experts predicting the trend to continue for the next few weeks, a delay in planning and preparedness to manage the situation is evident. As of Monday, the city has reported 4,052 Covid-19 cases and 91 deaths, a massive jump compared with just two weeks ago.

Limited availability of beds and ICU facilities in government hospitals, which are fast filling too, private hospitals’ reluctance to earmark beds and a delay in setting up covid care centres to treat asymptomatic patients are adding to the problem.

Chief minister BS Yediyurappa, after chairing a meeting of private hospital managements on Monday, admitted that the government was facing a shortage of beds. “I have directed private hospitals to provide 2,500 beds to the government by tomorrow,” he said.

These 2,500 beds are the 50% beds that the government had asked private hospitals to reserve for Covid-19 patients referred by public health authorities. Beyond this, private hospitals can allocate beds on their own to treat patients who take direct admission.

Tushar Girinath, the head of the taskforce to streamline bed availability and allotment in Bengaluru, said as on Monday, the number of beds in corona care centres was sufficient to meet the demand for next two days. “The government may add more beds every day,” he said.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has yet to come up with a centralised bed-allotment system for hospitals. Girinath said it would be ready in two days.

“In the present system, zonal-level officials update the bed availability data on a spreadsheet every two hours. We are now developing a software to track real-time availability of hospital beds and the transportation of patients in ambulances. The integrated system will sync termination information of ambulance and bed allotment without any gap,” he said.

BBMP special commissioner (health) D Randeep said centralised bed allotment would help in streamlining the system. “We are looking at a smooth transition to the portal,” he said.