Thiruvananthapuram: Several government and private hospitals in the Kerala continue to experience a heavy rush of patients undergoing COVID-19 treatment.
COVID bed availability was overstretched in most of the hospitals, especially at the three District Hospitals situated at Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Palakkad. The ICU and ventilator beds at these hospitals are packed and many patients are on the waiting list.
But at the same time, in many other districts, the number of coronavirus-infected patients visiting the hospitals has come down.
In Palakkad district, there is a surge of patients visiting the government and private hospitals. There are no vacant ICU and ventilator beds in the district now.
Out of the 53 ventilator beds in the exclusive COVID-19 hospital, 50 are used by the patients infected with the disease. The number of patients depending on ventilator support for other serious ailments is also soaring in the district.
The ICU beds at the COVID-19 Apex Centre in Ernakulam Medical College situated at Kalamassery have been running on its full capacity for the last two months. The demand for the ventilator beds remains the same.
The closure of COVID-19 Medical Centres at the PVS Hospital and the CIAL Convention Centre has contributed to the heavy rush for ICU and ventilator beds at the Ernakulam Medical College. The situation at the District Hospital in Aluva is not different as there are no vacant slots available for ICU and ventilator beds.
In Kozhikode district, ICU and ventilator beds are not vacant at present. In certain hospitals of Kozhikode, only patients showing a referral letter given by a hospital are allotted ICU beds. But in some other hospitals, there are no such rules. The patients are asked to wait till the beds are made available.
In Kannur, the COVID Control Cell has instructed hospitals to keep 30 percent of beds exclusively for patients treating coronavirus. This was done after a complaint was received against a private hospital for denying bed for a COVID-19 patient. About 80 percent of ICU beds are occupied in Kannur district. The number of patients taking admission in hospitals in Kottayam has gone up.
In Thiruvananthapuram, the number of patients taking treatment for coronavirus has come below 30 per cent. In Pathanamthitta district, the number of patients being treated for serious coronavirus infections is very less compared to other districts.
