Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (JD/HB)

Udupi, Jul 20: The increasing number of coronavirus patients has raised alarm within the healthcare system of Udupi district. Every day, the district is recording 50-100 positive cases. The patients are undergoing treatment at various taluk hospitals along with the Dr TMA Pai COVID hospital in Udupi.

The district administration has issued strict guidelines to the private hospitals to treat patients with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) in separate ICUs. Such patients who would be treated in separate ICUs will have to compulsorily undergo a coronavirus test. However, the spike in coronavirus infections is proving to be a burden on private hospitals in the district. This increase in cases is making it difficult for hospitals to maintain a separate exclusive ICU facility for SARI cases.

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In one such case, a private hospital was unable to admit a SARI patient as there was the unavailability of beds in the SARI ICU facility.

Speaking to Daijiworld, KMC medical superintendent Dr Avinash Shetty said, "Over the past few days we are getting an increasingly high number of SARI patients in both KMC and Dr TMA Pai COVID hospital. In order to handle the situation, we are planning to open a 75-bed facility at our Manipal hospital. Further, an additional four ventilator beds would be set up in Dr TMA Pai COVID hospital. Also, 12 ventilator equipped beds will be set up in Manipal block. These facilities will be functional in the next couple of days.

"Handling the increase in SARI cases along with the increase in COVID ICU cases is proving to be a herculean task. The COVID ICU of Dr TMA Pai Hospital is already full. Other private hospitals have also been requested to prepare themselves for treating patients if the number inflates. A district helpline is also being set up by the district health department to coordinate the availability of beds in respective hospitals. Earlier we would receive around 150 cases daily, but many of these cases were asymptomatic. Unfortunately, in recent days the symptomatic patients and SARI cases both have increased in number," he said.

As per the state bulletin, five patients are currently being treated in the ICUs of the COVID hospitals of Udupi district.

In recent times, it was observed that along with the asymptomatic cases, the number of people who required ventilator and ICU care was also increasing.

"The Health department has proposed to the state government to provide around 50 more ventilators for the district. These ventilators will be made available soon," said Dr Sudhirchandra Sooda, DHO, Udupi.

Raghupati Bhat, MLA Udupi, also recommended that the infected patients should first contact the district helpline and proceed with their instructions concerning SARI cases.

Speaking to Daijiworld, Udupi district commissioner G Jagadeesha said, "People are preferring to get admitted at KMC Hospital in Manipal and Dr TMA Pai COVID Hospital in Udupi for they believe that the treatment in these hospitals will be better. To ease the burden on these facilities, we are preparing other private hospitals to handle the increasing SARI cases.

"We have also requested the government to provide the district with a certain number of ventilators. Under Ayushman Bharat, 21 hospitals have been instructed to prepare themselves to provide 50 per cent of bed facilities to the government recommended patients. The district administration has already asked the private hospitals to prepare themselves so as to accommodate the rising number of patients. Several private entities like State Bank of India, Infosys Foundation and others have already donated ventilators for the district. We have also observed a spike in the number of SARI cases of people from outside the district. These patients have tested positive for coronavirus. I have instructed private hospitals to tactfully manage the admission of such people. Nearly 20 per cent of the positive cases are primary contacts of patients who were tested positive earlier. We are equipping ourselves to efficiently and effectively handle the situation," the DC said.