35 Percent Patient Spike in Pune’s Hospital Wards

The hospitals in the city are fighting to accommodate patients as there is a 35 percent increase in both inpatient departments (IPD) and critical care units/intensive care units (ICU). Also, hospitals in the city are experiencing a 100 percent bed occupancy. This is due to seasonal infections which include vector borne and water borne diseases, not excluding viral and bacterial infections. Dr HK Sale, director, Noble hospital, said, “There is a definite rise in admissions, mainly in IPD and ICU beds. Normally the hospital beds are 70 to 80 percent full but in the last two weeks, we are seeing an increase in critical cases. Today, we had to send five patients to another hospital.” Rekha Dubey, chief executive officer, Aditya Birla memorial Hospital (ABMH) said, “We have 138 beds in critical care unit (CCU) and our unit is full. The rise in the number of patients is due to seasonal infections and not due to any particularly disease or illness. We are seeing the rise in admissions for the past two weeks now.” Bomi Bhote, chief executive officer, Ruby Hall Clinic said, “There is a 35 percent rise in admissions. We have a long queue of relatives waiting to admit patients. Our 500-bed hospital is full, these days.”

Dr Sanjay Pathare, medical director, Ruby Hall Clinic said, “In case of emergencies and increased flow of patients, we accommodate them in our Wanowrie and Hinjewadi hospitals. The IPD and ICU are full.” Agreeing on the above scenario, Navnath Jagtap, charity commissioner said, “We received many phone calls from poor patients asking for help under various schemes. However, we are finding it difficult to help such patients these days. In the last few days, I was forced to check with three to four hospitals to get the patients admitted whereas two weeks before the scene was different.” Dr Ramesh Ranka, founder, Ranka Hospital said, “The rise is mainly due to seasonal infections and various types of febrile illnesses. People suffering from fever of unknown origin, influenza A H1N1 and suspected dengue cases are being admitted in the ICU and IPD. ”

Dr Jayshree Apte, chief executive officer, Sahyadri hospital agreed attributed the rise to the seasonal infections, mainly dengue, fever and influenza A H1N1. On the other hand, Dr Dhananjay Kelkar, managing director of the hospital said, “It is difficult for us to attribute our full admissions to seasonal variations as we always have 100 percent occupancy on all given days.” An official from Sassoon Hospital, on condition of anonymity said, “Some of our wards are full and overflowing. Since it is a government-run hospital, we always have many patients but we have seen a rise in admission cases in the last few weeks by around 25 percent. Cases that we are admitting are mainly of infections and febrile types of illnesses.” – Hindustan Times