KOLKATA: Two Covid-19 hospitals that were set up in stadiums and came to the rescue of Kolkatans during the peak of this second wave — when there was a massive bed crisis — are now empty.
Though there are no patients there at present, the hospitals that operated the facilities have decided to maintain the places so that they are ready to admit patients when the third wave strikes.
“Our last Covid patient from the stadium hospital was shifted to the general ward of our Salt Lake hospital only a couple of days ago.
Even if it does not have any patient any more, we will still maintain the infrastructure.
Cases are on a massive downswing at present.
We are keeping our fingers crossed, but many healthcare experts are talking about a third wave.
So we need to remain prepared,” said AMRI Hospitals Group CEO Rupak Barua.
When hospitals were absolutely overwhelmed and unable to handle the patient load, Medica Group of Hospitals had converted Kishore Bharti stadium into a 200-bed Covid hospital on April 10.
AMRI followed suit by taking over India’s largest football stadium at Salt Lake with 250 Covid beds on May 7.
“The Kishore Bharti stadium hospital is now completely empty, with the last patient being discharged about 10 days ago.
But since we are expecting a third wave, we will keep the facility intact for at least six more months,” said Medica Group of Hospitals chairman Alok Roy.
Unlike safe homes and satellite facilities, these two mini hospitals are equipped with almost hospital-like facilities, including liquid medical oxygen (LMO) tanks for uninterrupted oxygen supply and bed monitors.
They catered to mildly infected patients, as well as the moderately ill patients who needed HDU beds.
Back then, the state would record positive cases between 17,000 and 20,000 per day.
“We had hired additional manpower — a 140-strong team — for the field hospital and at a point of time it had as high as 75% occupancy.
The unit had not only helped patients, but also our three hospital units where we would receive numerous SOS messages for a bed,” said Barua.
At present, all three units of AMRI together have about 120 Covid patients out of 404 beds.
Medica, too, has only about a 40% Covid-bed occupancy in its hospital.
Currently, fresh cases have dipped by three times or above.
The two stadiums are, however, being utilized as community vaccination centres by the two respective hospital chains.
“We are administering about 5,000 doses daily from our stadium unit and we plan to expand it to reach more people,” said Roy.