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Covid patients struggle for few vacant pvt ICU beds in Andheri-Bandra belt

MUMBAI: A 58-year-old Bandra woman has questioned the BMC's claim of abundant availability of ICU beds in the city after spending a harrowing five hours scouting for one for her 60-year-old husband on Wednesday. Almost all major private hospitals between Bandra and Andheri said they did not have a vacant Covid ICU bed.




The woman said she made multiple calls back and forth to ward-level war rooms of Bandra (West) and Andheri (West) and it took them three hours to find her a bed, and that too in a nursing home. She said, "My husband has recently recovered from a heart attack for which he was on life support. Before that, he had undergone an elbow surgery. With so many risk factors, how could I admit him to a nursing home in Andheri West?"


After her husband tested positive for Covid around 5.30pm on Wednesday, the wife said she waited an hour to hear from the BMC before dialling the 1916 helpline and then the ward war rooms. Her husband's haemoglobin levels were extremely low, warranting urgent blood transfusion. "After getting tossed between helplines, I finally took help of friends who managed to find a bed in Nanavati Hospital at 11.30pm," she said.

Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Tushar Jimulia faced a similar situation while trying to shift his father-in-law to a hospital with a Covid ICU. "It took us half a day, during which time we must have made dozens of calls. I probably managed to get the bed because I am a doctor myself. It is a fact that ICU beds in major private hospitals are in short supply," said the surgeon. His father-in-law, who had come from Vapi for treatment, ultimately succumbed to the infection.

Pulmonologist Dr Aditi Punwani who consults in a Juhu hospital said the struggle to find ICU beds, particularly in the K-West Ward, is real. She cited the example of a 90-year-old from Vile Parle who was allotted an ICU bed in a Malad hospital by the BMC's control room.

"Several patients have to run from pillar to post. All major hospitals ask for a Covid-positive report even though the CT scan clearly shows Covid pneumonia. Besides, lab reports take 24 hours, which amounts to loss of a big treatment window."

BMC's dashboard says of the total 1,832 Covid ICU beds in the city, 346 are available. "We have several ICU beds lying vacant in Worli Dome and public hospitals. But affording patients only want beds in Nanavati, Kokilaben and Lilavati, which may be filled," said Mahesh Narvekar, BMC's disaster management chief officer. Dr Santosh Shetty, CEO, Kokilaben Hospital, said their 26-bed ICU has been packed to capacity since March. "Several beds are occupied by patients from neighbouring satellite towns," said Dr Deepak Patkar of Nanavati Hospital.

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