AHMEDABAD/ SURAT/ VADODARA: While the Dhanvantari Covid Hospital was created on a war footing to add 900 beds at the height of the second wave of Covid cases, the new hospital at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar with 900 beds is ready.
As the state prepares for a possible third wave in the second half of the year, the administration’s focus is on increasing bed capacity and identifying facilities that can be converted into Covid Care Centres (CCCs).
Several community halls and public places in Ahmedabad have been identified for the purpose, said officials.
Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (AHNA) officials said at its peak, over 6,000 beds were earmarked for Covid-19 treatment, and of these 94%-97% were occupied.
Even at the biggest facilities like the 1,200-bed Covid Hospital in Ahmedabad, queues of more than 50 ambulances were reported.
In Surat – the second worst-affected city after Ahmedabad in terms of cases – peak occupancy was 7,886 beds at dedicated Covid hospitals (DCH) and Community Covid Isolation Centres (CCIC).
SMC officials said there was 85% occupancy at DCHs while the overall occupancy was 67% on April 14.
In this period, 1,496 beds were added at CCICs.
A total of 261 hospitals including ten government hospitals with 4,000 beds and 251 private hospitals with more than 10,000 beds were treating patients in Vadodara during the peak of the second wave when the hospitals were flooded not only with patients from the city and its periphery but also from outside the district and state.
“Vadodara admitted and treated more patients than Ahmedabad and Surat but there was almost zero waiting of ambulances at OPDs as we had adopted an intelligent referral system,” said Dr Vinod Rao, officer on special duty for Covid-19 in Vadodara.
“The capacity of ventilator beds which was 90 in March was increased to 1,200 by May 1,” he said, adding that even during the peak, 15 % of them were getting empty every day.
“Around 200 people got ventilators each day even during the worst days.” The availability of free hospital beds which was 1,250 in March 2021 was increased to 4,000 beds in May 2021 in Vadodara.
(With inputs from Prashant Rupera from Vadodara, Jay Pachchigar from Surat, and Parth Shastri from Ahmedabad)