Hyderabad: As cases ebb, private hospitals cut down Covid wards

Hyderabad : With in-patient admissions of Covid-19 affected in private hospitals declining with each week, hospitals are slowly cutting down on the number of wards and spaces that were exclusively used for Covid-19 treatment for the past four months.

Out of five beds that were allocated for Covid-19 treatment, only one bed is being filled and understandably, hospitals are revisiting their plans. A noted corporate hospital in Hyderabad which had earlier allocated nearly four top floors for Covid-19 treatment has now reduced it to single floor.

The earlier used wards are being disinfected, sterilised, cleaned, sanitised and kept vacant for three to four weeks before they are pressed into service again for non-Covid treatments.

A senior doctor, involved in Covid-19 treatment, stated that in-patient admissions in private hospitals have reduced and only infected patients having co-morbidities were getting admitted with the rest preferring treatment in home isolation.

"Earlier people used to get panicked after being diagnosed with the virus and used to rush to hospitals for treatment as a precautionary measure. Now as soon as someone is found to be infected, immediately treatment is being started under the watchful eyes of a doctor known to them and a majority of them are now recovering successfully.

The fact that the recovery rate is over 90 per cent and death rate is below 0.6 per cent in Telangana has made people believe that they can also recover without much worries," the doctor said.

As many as 227 private hospitals in various districts got permission to treat corona patients. Barring a few big corporate hospitals, a majority of hospitals have just earmarked 10 to 30 beds with some allocating around 50 beds. Only a few big hospitals in twin-cities are still continuing with beds in three-digit figures.

As of Monday, only 1,712 beds are filled in private hospitals of the total 8,897 beds, which is just 20 per cent occupancy.

Dr Bhaskar Rao, Telangana Super-specialty Hospitals Association president stated that the transition of Covid-19 wards to non-Covid wards was done by various hospitals and it was very normal as non-Covid treatments have to be taken care of also.