ICU bed occupancy rate rises in Mumbai

There has been a surge in the people being admitted to the Covid Intensive Care Unit (ICU) across the city in the last 12 days. According to the dashboard, 53 patients were admitted to ICU until June 7 which has now increased to 131 patients until June 19, which means almost 1.5 times rise in hospitalisation. Health officials said all these are incident admissions as most of them are senior citizens with comorbidities who are being admitted to ICU instead of patients who are being diagnosed with Covid with pneumonia.

Dr Mangala Gomare, executive health officer said the number of ICU patients will increase as there has been a drastic surge in the daily Covid cases across the city. Moreover, these are those patients who have been Covid positive after being admitted to the hospital for other illnesses.

“We will be witnessing more rise in numbers as cases are increasing and currently all incidental hospitilisation is being which associated with Covid. No one is admitted to the ICU for Covid. Most of the patients are senior citizens but there are some patients who are below 40 years of age,” she said.

On the other hand, the civic-run hospitals are witnessing more number of patients who need ICU beds.“We have 41 patients admitted in ICU most of them are senior citizens and suffering from co-morbidities. Many of them are transferred from private hospitals after getting tested positive for Covid. Covid is not the problem but due to other health issues, we have to keep them in the ICU,” said Dr Smita Chavan additional dean of Seven hills hospitals.

As per the civic data, until June 7, 23 patients were admitted to ICU in private hospitals across the city which has increased to 66 until June 19, which means almost two-fold surge in hospitalization in Covid ICU.

“We have hardly anyone in ICU due to Covid pneumonia; most of them have the aggravation of a problem related to their co-morbidity. All are of mixed age groups. Some are young and some are detected before their surgery but none of them are on oxygen support or a ventilator,” said a doctor from the private hospital.

Dr Joy Chakraborty Coo of PD Hinduja hospital said mostly senior citizens are admitted to the Covid ICU as they have comorbidities, but they have patients who are below 40 years of age. “There is a need for people to start following Covid appropriate behaviour and start wearing a mask as cases will keep increasing in the coming days. Though the hospitalisation rate is low and the number of asymptomatic patients is high, we need to take precautions wearing masks and vaccination is important,” he said.

Dr Abdul Samad Ansari, Director, Critical Care Services, Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital, said though the number of critical patients has increased in the past few days, their condition is relatively stable. Most patients have multiple comorbidities such as underlying cardiac problems, diabetes, history of organ transplantation, and compromised immune response. “All the patients are responding well to the treatment and very few need ventilatory or oxygen support. The condition of patients is much better than in the second wave, bringing the fatality rate substantially down.” Free Press Journal