Mumbai News

Mumbai: As Covid cases and deaths drop, civic hospitals up general beds – Times of India

MUMBAI: As the Covid-19 graph in the city registers a major drop, bed occupancy in wards dedicated to the disease in BMC hospitals has fallen 50% to 75% compared to the peak period.
Many municipal hospitals have started converting their Covid-19 wards and beds back to general ones.
During the Covid-19 peak in the May-June, many of the BMC hospitals — especially its big three, KEM, Sion and Nair Hospitals — had to add up beds and wards for Covid-19 care on a daily basis.
At KEM Hospital in Parel, there has been a 25% drop in Covid-19 bed occupancy over the past week alone. “On October 23, we had 118 patients with us and on October 30 the occupancy has dropped to 88,” KEM Hospital dean Dr Hemant Deshmukh said.
KEM had to convert 550 beds into Covid ones. It was earmarked for the most critical Covid-19 cases and their goings-on here are indicative of the overall Covid severity in the city.
“We have realised that the average stay of patients even in the ICU has reduced,” additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said.
During a visit to the hospital last week, he found that a young patient with about 50% lung scarring was weaned off the ventilator in a week.
In terms of mortality as well, there has been a major drop. While KEM Hospital used to witness 10 to 15 deaths a day during the Covid peak in the April-to-June period, it registered only nine deaths in the October 23-30 period.
Nair Hospital, which was converted into a 1,100-bedded only-Covid hospital in April and had no vacant beds for months, now has 248 in-patients with Covid.
“Of these 248 patients, 110 patients are on ventilator,” Nair Hospital dean Dr Ramesh Bharmal said.
It used to witness up to 20 deaths a day during the infection’s peak period.
“But now we have two or three deaths every other day,” Dr Bharmal said.
In Sion hospital, work on non-Covid patient care has stepped up. “We have 1,100 beds for non-Covid and 300 for Covid right now,” dean Dr Mohan Joshi said.
Kakani said the load on many BMC hospitals had dropped to such an extent that focus was back on general non-Covid patients.
“In Cooper Hospital, Juhu, for instance, we have reduced one of the three floors that were dedicated for Covid,” he said.
However, the bed arrangement on this floor will not go back to pre-Covid times and maintain the physical-distancing norms for Covid.
“If, unfortunately, Covid cases increase once again, the floor will once again be converted into a Covid ward in minimum time,” Kakani said. “We will not take any chances. The idea is to be able to upscale Covid care at a very short notice.”

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-as-covid-cases-and-deaths-drop-civic-hospitals-up-general-beds/articleshow/78978297.cms