Amid Covid surge and struggling health infrastructure, PCMC appoints teams to ensure bed management

The civic-run hospitals have a long list of patients waiting to get admitted either for oxygen support or to be put on ventilator support, and these steps have helped make beds available for patients in the queue, the PCMC health department said.

As per the PCMC health department, around 8,000 patients are admitted to various hospitals in Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has appointed three teams of doctors to monitor the availability of beds in the city’s five civic-run hospitals, which are struggling to accommodate patients amid the Covid-19 surge.

The teams appointed by the PCMC are tasked with taking a call on either home isolating patients, shifting them to other facilities or moving them to ICUs as per the patient’s condition.

“A patient who is considered stable or has oxygen saturation level at 92 per cent after a six-minute walk is moved out to either home islolation or shifted to other facilities. Every day, we are discharging at least 70 patients, which allows for new patients to be accommodated,” said Dr Sangram Kapale, the in-charge at PCMC-run Jumbo hospital.

Story continues below this ad

The civic-run hospitals have a long list of patients waiting to get admitted either for oxygen support or to be put on ventilator support, and these steps have helped make beds available for patients in the queue, the PCMC health department said.

– Stay updated with the latest Pune news. Follow Express Pune on Twitter here and on Facebook here. You can also join our Express Pune Telegram channel here.

“Since bed management and bed availability are being strictly monitored, this is helping more patients find a bed in PCMC facilities. At the same time, patients who need ventilator support are also being stepped up…” said a doctor in one of the teams.

According to the PCMC health department, as many as 8,000 patients are admitted in various hospitals in Pimpri-Chinchwad. The city has at least 140 Covid-19 hospitals and 22 Covid Care Centres with a capacity of more than 10,000 beds. Of these, 3,800 are oxygen beds, 800 non-ventilator beds in ICUs and 450 ventilator beds.

Story continues below this ad

As on Tuesday morning, only 300 beds, mostly non-oxygen beds, were available in these facilities, the health department said.

The teams have been appointed to tackle this persistent situation of non-availability of beds. The are either giving discharge to “stable” patients or shifting them to Covid Care Centres or other hospitals as required or demanded.

Also Read | PCMC posts record Covid deaths and positive cases in April

“A team of doctors from YCM hospital, led by Dr Abhaychandra Dadevar, takes a round of the Jumbo Hospital and decides whether patients should be home quarantined or shifted to Covid Care Centres,” said Dr Kapale.

The team that is looking after Auto Cluster bed management includes Dr Vinayak Patil and Dr Saurabh Gaikwad, at the Jumbo Hospital, the team includes Dr Abhay Dadevar, Dr Manjit Santre, Dr Santosh Thorat and Dr Anant Karale, at YCMH, the team includes Dr Aniket Lathi, Dr Ritesh Pathak, Dr Rakesh Waghmare and Dr Manoj Gajbhare.

Story continues below this ad

Even the admission process in these hospitals is monitored by a team of doctors from YCM hospital. While a team of doctors has been placed at the jumbo hospital, the Auto Cluster admissions are being done through the triage of YCM Hospital.

The PCMC runs YCM hospital, where 650 Covid patients are admitted. “Only those who are on oxygen support or ventilator support are admitted to the hospital. If YCM hospital does not have beds, the patients are moved to Auto Cluster, Jumbo or to other facilities,” said YCMH dean Dr Rajendra Wable.

The PCMC runs two other hospitals — New Bhosari Hospital and Jijamata Hospitals — each having 100 beds.

Meanwhile on Monday, YCM hospital received a fleet of nine ambulances, including cardiac ambulances. The YCMH administration said it had given the proposal for purchase of the ambulances during the first Covid wave. However, after cases went down, PCMC had decided to postpone the procurement, which has now been carried out.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories

Loading Taboola...

H-1B $100,000 entry fee explained: Who pays, who’s exempt, and what’s still unclear?

Explained1 hr ago

The White House's decision to impose a $100,000 entry fee on H-1B visa holders has sparked worry among Indian tech workers and students. While uncertainties remain about its implementation and exemptions, major tech companies have cautioned employees against traveling. The policy could lead to a shift towards other visa categories and potentially change the STEM immigration pipeline.

View all shorts

Live Blog