Amid the reports of steep spike corona cases spikes, the Delhi Government on Friday claimed that the health infrastructure in the city is ready to tackle any situation as close to 70 per cent of beds are still vacant. However, increasing patients from outside Delhi is a cause of big concern for the state government. Sources in Delhi government said that 33 percent of the beds have been occupied by people outside of Delhi. Moreover, in private hospitals 70 percent beds are occupied by .outside patients.
Delhi government’s response came as the National Capital recorded its highest – single day increase in coronavirus cases in 67 days.
According to State (Delhi) Heath Department, out of 14,000 beds in Delhi, around 4,500 are occupied of which 1,500 (33%) are occupied by those outside Delhi.
A senior government official said, “Around 4,500 beds are occupied at present and out of it, 1,500 are occupied by those outside Delhi. “Nearly 70percent of beds in Delhi are still vacant. Only 3 of the 131 Covid hospitals (private and government) are full. There's no shortage of beds right now but increasing number of patients from outside Delhi is worrying".
Sharing details about private hospitals, the official said that the ICU beds in few top private hospitals are also occupied.
Surprisingly, over 70 percent of these patients in private hospitals are from outside Delhi. “Max Saket, Max Patparganj, Indraprastha Apollo, Fortis Vasant Kunj. Over 70percent of these patients are from outside Delhi,” he added. Delhi government is fully prepared but the where will the people of Delhi go and should citizens of Delhi get assured beds in Delhi hospital amid rush from outside,” official added.
It is important to mention here August month data raveled that the admission percentage of outside patients in Delhi has been increased drastically from 19.5 percent to 30.8 percent.
The Covid -19 hospital data of corona patients admitted in city hospitals further illustrated that patients from Uttar Pardesh,Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan are also admitted for the treatment.
Instance - in Delhi’s BLK hospital total 98 patients have been admitted while 47 belong to Delhi , 51 patients are from outside.
In Apollo, out of total 158 patients, 111 patients who get Corona treatment are from outside while only 47 from Delhi.
In Max, Saket out of total 175 patients, 95 are non-residents of Delhi while in Patparganj branch - 73 patients are from Delhi however 61 are from outside.