Crisis looms over Kolkata hospitals amid shortage of COVID-19 beds, spike in cases

Kolkata: Amid the steep rise in COVID-19 cases, hospitals in the city are staring at a bed crisis with most of them underscoring that their critical care units are all occupied. Some of these facilities are planning to restrict admission of general patients for the time being, while others expressed helplessness and said they won’t be able to expand their critical care units for lack of funds and space. In state-run Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General (ID&BG) Hospital, all beds at the high dependency units and general wards are full. “The situation is very critical. We are staring at a major crisis. Ours is a small hospital, there is no option to boost the infrastructure,” principal Anima Haldar said, further expressing her inability to increase the number of beds, despite at least 30 COVID-19 patients visiting the facility every day. Admission for COVID-19 patients have also come to a halt at several private hospitals, including Peerless Hospital, AMRI Hospital’s all three units, Apollo Hospital, CMRI, Fortis Hospital, Belle Vue Clinic, Woodlands Multispeciality Hospital. “All 157 beds in our three units of AMRI Hospitals are full and we are not in a position to admit any new patient. We are planning to set up with 22 more beds by Tuesday,” one of its officials said. Dr Sudipta Mitra, Peerless Hospital head, told PTI said more than 250 patients visit the facility for COVID-19 tests daily, and 40 percent of those who test positive are being accommodated. Authorities at the Belle Vue Clinic, which at the moment has 114 beds to treat COVID-19 patients, said they have plans to add 45 more to the fleet. At CMRI, a senior official said increasing the number of beds is not at an option for now. We plan to restrict admission of non-COVID-19 patients as of now. Beds from general are being shifted to COVID-19 units to help address the current situation," the official stated. The situation is no different in Woodlands and Fortis hospitals. “We have around 66 beds and all have been taken. We are working under severe pressure. As of now, we are evaluating the situation in the hospital. Once that is done, we will be able to take a call on increasing the number of beds,” Fortis Hospital director Dr Faisal said. Bengal on Monday registered 4,511 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike since the onset of the pandemic last year, the state health department said.