KOLKATA: With the number of patients dropping steadily across private hospitals that had converted to Covid-only facilities since May, beds and floors are now being opened up for non-Covid treatment.
While some will resume non-Covid treatment in a restricted way from Monday, others have already started converting beds for the same.
At RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS), 30 Covid critical care beds are being converted into non-Covid from next week.
The hospital will also restart day-care emergency services like dialysis and chemotherapy that remained suspended for more than a month.
“We have 130 critical care beds of which just 56% is now occupied.
Due to a renewed demand for non-Covid beds, we plan to convert 30 Covid critical care beds into non Covid ones from next week.
Our non-Covid critical care beds are now fully occupied,” said Narayana Health zonal head R Venkatesh.
Peerless Hospital plans to convert one Covid unit into a non-Covid one a week later.
Number of Covid patients at the hospital has slumped from 170 to less than a hundred over the last 10 days.
“A week later, we may convert yet another Covid unit into a non-Covid one, if the present trend continues, which, I believe, it will.
At the moment, we have both Covid and non-Covid vacancies which hasn’t happened in nearly two months.
But we can’t admit non-Covid patients in Covid ICU which remains full.
So, berths for critical non-Covid patients are still limited at our hospital,” said Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra..
In early-May, Medica Superspecialty Hospital had more than 300 Covid patients.
It has now dropped to 140 and the hospital has already converted 180 beds into non-Covid ones.
“The drop has been quick, thanks to the restrictions and it’s still falling which is great.
Now, we need to shift our focus back to non-Covid patients.
who have been neglected for the last month-and-half,” said Medica chairperson Alok Roy.
He added that the hospital, that had shut down its OPD at the height of the second wave in early-May, has now started welcoming patients back.
At Narayana Multispecialty Hospital in Howrah, a Covid floor will be converted back to a non-Covid unit on Monday.
Till last month, Charnock Hospital used two of its four buildings for Covid treatment.
“Now, we will have an additional non-Covid building since the Covid numbers have dropped,” said Charnock managing director Prashant Sharma.
More than 100 Covid general beds at AMRI Hospitals have been converted to non-Covid since the third week of May across its three units.
“We had 425 general Covid beds till two weeks back.
We hope to convert at least another 100 by the next fortnight,” said AMRI CEO Rupak Barua.