Bengaluru: Shortage of ventilator beds continues in government hospitals

Bengaluru: Even as total active Covid cases have climbed to 1,106,476 cases, the shortage of ICU ventilator beds at government hospitals continues. On Sunday, there were only four ICU ventilator beds in the government hospitals and none at all in medical colleges.

At private hospital the availability of ICU ventilator beds under the government quota is 62 and nine at private medical colleges.

"The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been struggling to allot ventilator beds. If there is a request at night the officials will be helpless, so they wait for the next morning to allot the bed. On an average there are 10 requests in each zone (8 zones) everyday. The government has to empanel more hospitals with ventilators under the BBMP quota," founder of covidbeds.org, Santosh Doddaiah stated.

The palike has observed that private medical institutions in the 50-100 beds category were denying admission to government quota patients.

In the light of this the BBMP has asked the special commissioners to ensure that the government referred patients are allotted ventilator beds.

"Ensure that 50% of total beds along with doctors and medical staff is reserved for government referred Covid-19 patients and these beds, especially ICU and ICU ventilator government beds are not diverted to private patients," the BBMP order dated October 15 stated.