Private hospitals in Madurai increase bed capacity

 

Demand for beds in private hospital continues to rise in Madurai district as bed occupancy rises to 69% on Saturday from 44% as of June end.

According to data made available by the State Health department, there are a total of 808 beds available in Madurai district across 15 hospitals. Currently, a total of 556 are in use.

As of June 27, there were 400 beds available and 179 were occupied in 11 private hospitals.

In anticipation of the rising cases, a few large private hospitals are increasing their bed capacity by providing treatment both within the hospital and outside of it. For patients with mild and moderate symptoms, hospitals like Apollo and Meenakshi Mission have created COVID-19 care centres (CCC) that have 24-hour monitoring.

Chief Operating Officer, Apollo Hospital, Rohini Sridhar, says that the 74 beds allocated for COVID-19 treatment in the hospital are all occupied.

However, the hospital has also made provisions to create a CCC at a hotel 500 m from their campus that has doctors monitoring patients round-the-clock. She adds that the hospital was also providing monitored home isolation for those who can afford to stay at home.

“For others, the CCC can be used. The facility also comes in handy as a step up and step down treatment centre. In case a patient at the CCC requires urgent treatment due to worsening symptoms, they can be shifted to the hospital. Those at the hospital whose health has improved but still need to be under observation can be shifted to the CCC as well,” she says.

General Manager, Operations, Meenakshi Mission Hospital, J. Adel says that apart from the facility at their hospital near Mattuthavani, around 60 patients with mild and moderate symptoms are being treated at the Meenakshi Nursing College in Kottakudi.

“We now have around 131 beds because we have leased out space from two other private hospitals and are admitting patients there too,” he said. Apart from this, the hospital was also providing separate monitored home isolation, he says.

Senior General Manager, Devadoss Hospital, A. K. Sivakumar, says that although they were currently in the process of increasing their bed capacity from 33 to 53, they too have tied up with a hotel located close to the hospital for quarantining their staff.

“Apart from creating beds with oxygen facilities and converting wards, we are also looking at the well-being of our staff. They need to be quarantined in a safe facility outside of the hospital,” he said.

Management Representative, Vadamalayan Hospital, V. Karthik, said that although the 54 beds utilized for COVID-19 treatment were all in use, they have a total of 15 beds separately set aside for COVID-19 suspected patients.

Head, Critical Care Unit, Velammal Hospital, S. Vijay Anand, says that they were not planning to increase the number of beds at the hospital because the load was currently being shared by smaller hospitals in the district who have opened up their facilities for COVID-19 treatment.

“We have 200 beds out of which 119 are occupied. In the last week, many hospitals have opened their gates for COVID-19 treatment too. The burden is now being shared,” he said.

 

Originally published at https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/private-hospitals-increase-bed-capacity/article32125607.ece