BHOPAL: Even as the threat of possible third corona waves looms over the state, the government has reduced the number of covid bed capacity in hospitals from 21,349 to 579 in
Madhya Pradesh. Currently, only 579 dedicated beds are available in the state to treat Covid-19 patients in hospitals. Of these 319 beds are in Intensive Care Units
(ICU) and HDU (High Dependency Units), while 260 are oxygen supported beds in various public and private hospitals.
Earlier, the government had increased the bed capacity in hospitals and had designated 21,349 beds for treating corona patients. Of these 6075 were ICU and HDU beds and
15,274 oxygen supported beds in various public and private hospitals. Besides,7,350 were isolation beds.
While on one hand government claims that it is preparing for another coronavirus wave, but on the other it has drastically cut down the number of beds it had arranged for treating patients during the second wave.
The health experts have warned of the Coronavirus third wave in September. Even the High Court has made adverse comments on the manner the state government is functioning in tackling the pandemic stating that only rearrangement of beds does not serve the purpose. It will take at least 15 days in arranging or restoring bed capacity, resuming oxygen supply if a third wave hits the state.
As experts have predicted a third wave in September. So now the health department is making all arrangements like installation of oxygen plants at various cities so that there must be regular supply in hospitals.
All focus on ensuring health facilities at hospitals: Sarang
DME minister Vishws Sarang, talking to Free Press, said, ìWe are focusing on oxygen plant installation, increasing beds in various hospitals and man-power training before the corona third wave which the health experts are expecting in September. We will update and upgrade various facilities as per capacity of hospitals in various places. With oxygen plants, we will be able to supply oxygen to hospitals so that patients do not have to face any crisis. Number of beds will depend on the capacity of the hospitals so we cannot fix one figure for all the hospitals.
