Bhubaneswar: With the steep rise in COVID cases across the state, tall claims made by government on COVID preparedness and management have been exposed. Data provided by the state government shows that there is no ventilator bed available for the critically ill COVID-19 patients in Koraput and Jharsuguda districts.
There are only three ventilator-supported beds at the Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College & Hospital in Koraput and all of them have been occupied. Similarly, all 10 ventilator-supported beds at Jharsuguda district headquarters hospital have also been filled up.
In such condition, any seriously ill COVID patient visiting the hospitals will face problems.
The situation is also alarming in many other places of the state, especially in western Odisha, as all the beds are being occupied fast. At least 12 out of 18 ventilator beds are occupied in Ashwini Hospital in Cuttack and 11 out of 30 such beds are already being uses in the Bhubaneswar unit of the hospital. The Puri district COVID hospital has 11 ventilator beds, of which six are already occupied.
While the COVID hospital at Bargarh has 8 ICU beds, the unit is not functioning due to lack of support staff.
The critical patients of these two districts – Koraput and Jharsuguda – have been referred to nearby hospitals where ICU beds are available, Health department sources said.
Director Medical Education and Training (DMET) CBK Mohanty said the situation has improved a little in western Odisha. The infection rate has come down slightly in the region. He added that the number of beds is being increased in the districts where the number of positive cases is high.
In fact, of the 179 ventilators beds available in all the government facilities 25 have been already occupied. Similarly, 105 out of the 625 ventilators have been occupied in private COVID hospitals across the state.
As many 140 of the 682 ICU beds in government-run COVID hospitals are occupied. Currently, there are 1,754 ICU beds in the private COVID Care Hospitals and 608 of these have been occupied by critically ill patients.
PNN