Faced with a shortage of hospital beds nearly three months since Mumbai reported its first COVID-19 case, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to allot them at the ward level, with control rooms in all 24 ward offices. Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani claims this will help in decentralisation and faster allocation of beds, but medical professionals are not so sure.
Data released by the BMC shows that 94% COVID-19 hospital beds, 85% ventilators and 98% ICU beds are occupied in Mumbai, due to which people are not able to find a bed. Several private hospitals have still not come around to opening up their premises, while several jumbo facilities are still not activated for housing COVID-19 patients.
BMC targets 1 lakh beds
In May, the BMC increased the capacity of its COVID-19 and ICU beds, including for quarantine and isolation, to 75,000 and aims to take it up to one lakh in June. Of the 43,262 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals across the city, 989 are critical.
According to data shared by the BMC, Mumbai has 9,092 beds in Dedicated COVID-19 Hospitals and Dedicated COVID-19 Healthcare Centres, of which 8,570 or 94% are occupied.
The city only has 1,097 ICU beds, of which 1,080 or 98% are occupied, and 4,650 oxygen-supported beds, of which 74% are occupied. Of the 442 ventilators, 85% are under use. It comes as no surprise, then, that people are unable to find hospital beds, especially in ICUs.
“This means the BMC has no margin or surplus beds. It is barely floating above the surface. Despite that, it is busy creating jumbo facilities that are not meant for critical patients. One can draw the inference that that is because jumbo facilities are contractor-driven. But if we raise the question, they say we are politicising the issue,” said Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashish Shelar.
Another 1,000 beds will be added to the 1,000-bed field hospital at Bandra Kurla Complex. A 1,200-bed facility has been created at NESCO in Goregaon but it is not being fully used. The modular hospital at NSCI Centre in Worli is the only jumbo facility with ICU beds right now. Besides these, the BMC had recently taken over thousands of private hospital beds.
Additional municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide, who shared the data on Twitter, did not respond to this reporter’s calls or messages. However, when a Twitter user pointed out to her that beds in Mumbai are full, Ms. Bhide tweeted an additional set of numbers. “Our hospital bed capacity for COVID-19 patients has increased from about 3,500 beds to 9,000 beds in 1.5 months. An additional 8,500+ beds are being made available through jumbo facilities. 2,500 beds are already ready and have started accepting patients. About 900 more ICUs+venti ICUs are also getting added,” she said.
After media reports of jumbo facilities lying vacant, the BMC issued a statement on Friday that said these were part of its “long-term planning” and were “being put to use step by step.” Doctors and other staff have already been appointed there, it said.
Last week, nearly 74 second, third and fourth-year MBBS students were appointed to manage the ward-level war rooms. On Friday, some of them reported to ward offices while many others awaited confirmation about remuneration.
At present, the F South ward office in Parel is the BMC’s main war room where calls made on the 1916 helpline are being managed. The disaster control room in the BMC’s head office at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus was sealed last week for the second time after a few staff members tested positive. At F South, the helpline has three medical interns working in three shifts while at least 12 others are managing the calls from home.
Mini war rooms in hospitals
Three others mini war rooms have also been set up at Nair, KEM and Sion hospitals. A doctor said each of the war rooms will have its own updated dashboard. For example, the war room at Nair hospital will have real-time information on its beds and the war room in a particular ward will have the information on beds in the COVID-19 Care Centres under its jurisdiction.
Not everyone is convinced this is the way to go. “We don’t know if multiple war rooms will ease things or complicate them further,” said a doctor. There are many accounts of difficulty in getting through to the 1916 helpline. Doctors say the authorities have been insisting that callers on 1916 should be allocated beds within 60 minutes, but that has not been possible as yet.
