Bengaluru faces ICU bed shortage after slight spike in Covid-19 cases

The city is once again facing ICU bed shortage after a slight increase in Covid-19 cases and some private hospitals backing out of their commitment to supply beds.

Tushar Girinath, IAS officer in charge of bed management in Bengaluru, said the problem began on Thursday when the number of Covid-19 cases requiring hospitalisation increased slightly.

“The number of patients and the ICU beds had been balanced up till now. But we started to see a slight increase in the numbers and that tipped the balance,” Girinath said.

A bedding management portal operated by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) revealed that the city’s government hospitals have 57 ICU beds for Covid patients. While private hospitals have 316 beds, private medical colleges contribute an additional 102 beds.

Officially, there are 34 ICU beds free in government hospitals, five in private medical colleges, 156 in private hospitals, and one single bed in a government medical college. However, Girinath explained that these numbers are not current.

“There is lag in the information update to the portal,” he said.

“Some of the smaller hospitals are not able to provide Covid ICU services even though on paper, they can. Even in larger hospitals, only some 29 are currently offering beds. The rest are not. We are trying to sort out the situation,” he added.

BBMP Special Commissioner Randeep D said the problem is due to some issues in private hospitals.

“We have learned that some private hospitals have given government quota beds to private Covid-19 patients even if they are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, which is a waste of resources,” he said.

“This means they have reneged on their commitments to the government. Some punitive action will have to be taken,” Randeep added.

Girinath said the government would again confer with private hospitals to ensure 50% allocation of their beds to the government.

Volunteers helping under-privileged Covid-19 patients get admittance corroborated that some hospitals had stepped back from their 50% allocation to the government.

“The beds that should be there are simply not there,” said Ameen-e-Mudassar, a citizen volunteer. “Since morning, on Sunday, we were trying to find ICU beds for five patients. Not one has been found.”