The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has ordered all its ward officers to take over the beds in private hospitals and nursing homes as the city gears up to tackle a new surge of COVID-19 infections.
This development came soon after Mumbai faced a shortage of beds in private hospitals over the weekend, as it recorded over 13,000 coronavirus cases on Saturday and Sunday.
In a meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said Mumbai was likely to touch 10,000 cases a day in a few days.
On Monday, March 29, the corporation issued 18 directives to its ward officers and private hospitals as part of its strategy to better utilise the hospital beds in the city, as it looks to avoid a situation similar to the first wave of COVID-19 when many patients who had urgent need of hospitalisation could not get admitted due to poor allocation of beds.
According to data revealed by the BMC, 7,364 beds in public and private are dedicated to Covid hospitals, of which, 1,941 are vacant. Meanwhile, of the 5,378 beds in dedicated Covid care centres, 1,230 are vacant. These are expected to fill fast in a few days, said IS Chahal.
Mumbai is recording between 6,000-7,000 cases daily, of which 10-15 per cent seek hospital admission. With 700 patients getting admitted daily and staying in hospital for 14 days on average, the bed capacity will soon fall short.
In the meeting, the BMC decided to add 63 small nursing homes as COVID hospitals, so that it can add 2,000 beds, including 400 ICUs, to its tally. Currently, there are 243 ventilators and 2,279 oxygen beds available in Mumbai, but the bulk of vacant beds are in government centres.
Besides, 80 per cent of total hospital beds and all ICU beds will be reserved for COVID-19 treatment in each ward, and no admissions by private hospitals will be allowed to these without the permission of the corporation.
Moreover, the civic body declared that asymptomatic coronavirus patients without any comorbidity will not be allocated hospital beds. The corporation has instructed hospitals to discharge at the earliest all such patients who have been admitted.
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