As the number of cases of COVID-19 in the city of Bengaluru continues to rise steeply, there have been concerns about whether there will be adequate beds to hold patients. As per the experts, Bengaluru most likely will have adequate beds.
As of Friday afternoon, the city of Bengaluru has a total of 408 active patients of COVID-19. The city, currently, has a capacity of 3,324 beds which are exclusive to COVID-19 patients. Out of this, there are 975 beds are vacant in government hospitals, 1,159 beds in private hospitals, and more than 780 beds in COVID-19 centers. This is just 17 percent of the total beds available in both public and private hospitals in the city. The total capacity is 19,359 beds.
An official from the Health and Family Welfare department the city is unlikely to face the shortage of beds but there is another concern the city might have to tackle. As per the sources, there is a lack of coordination between the Health Department and the Medical education department which is soon becoming a major dent in managing the pandemic.
Lack Of Coordination
An expert committee was set up by the state government to look into the condition of the government hospitals in the city that are designated to treat COVID-19. The committee, in its report, had advised the government to draft a plan that will include treatment facilities for both COVID-19 and non-COVID patients. A member of the expert committee told,
“But the government has not implemented this so far. The big problem here is the lack of coordination between the Medical Education Department and the Health Department. Medical college hospitals like NIMHANS, Victoria, and RGCID fall under the Medical Education Department’s Director and the Deans of these colleges. It has been three weeks since the Medical Education Department said that a separate hotel would be converted into a quarantine center for the health staff at Victoria, so the beds at BMCRI hospital can be used to treat non-COVID patients who need hospitalization. But this has not happened. This is because there is no coordination between the department and the Deans of these colleges.”
While it is unlikely that the city might face a shortage of beds, there are growing concerns of coordination between the two departments in the state.
Source: The News Minute
