Mumbai: Given that less than one fifth of 38,093 Covid beds in this city are occupied at this time, BMC will soon receive calls whether all Jumbo field hospitals must operate next month.
The BMC Covid dashboard for January 20 shows only 14% (5,475) of the total available hospital beds occupied.
Most of these patients were received at BMC or Seven Hills Hospital, Andheri.
BMC runs nine Jumbo Hospitals between Worli in the south, Dahisar in the northwest and Mulund in the northeast.
“At the end of this month, we expect a daily Caseload to go down to a three-digit number such as the four digits now.
At that time, we can only save the operation of the Jumbos and put others as a reserve,” said the additional commissioner of BMC Suresh Kakani.
Already, BMC has requested the Dean of Jumbos to limit the entrance ticket to several wards so that labor and resources can be used optimally.
When the second wave starts to decline, BMC has placed most of the field hospital as a backup, especially BKC and Mulund Jumbos.
“Almost 70% of Covid beds in most common hospitals and around 60% of beds in the private sector are not inhabited, “said a BMC senior doctor.
Instead of keeping empty beds, doctors in the private sector believe more beds must be available for people with non-covid diseases.
Nearly 95% of cases in L Ward (Kurla West) in the current wave came from Highrises, said Dr.
Jadhav, Ward Medical Health Officer.
“When people have mild symptoms and fever subsides in a day, there is no need for inpatient in the majority of cases,” he said.
With additional rooms for isolation with toilets, people in Highrises prefer home isolation, he added.
Sometimes, the doctors who care for them give letters that their health will be monitored while they are in house isolation and “We do not insist on hospitalization or institutional quarantine”.
Matunga Corporator Nehal Shah (BJP) said the third wave was very different from the first two covid waves.
“Previously, we will get post-midnight calls for hospital beds.
However, this time the symptoms are very light so that even the free oxygen concentrators stored in our party office are not used,” Shah said.