Mumbai: City hospitals check how Covid-ready they are

A dummy patient being brought to SevenHills Hospital during the drill on Tuesday

It took six minutes for a patient arriving in an ambulance to be admitted to the ICU at SevenHills Hospital. The civic-run hospital managed to reduce the time from 12 to 15 minutes to 6 minutes during a drill held on Tuesday. SevenHills Hospital was among the city hospitals that carried out drills, as directed by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, to check the preparedness in view of the global COVID-19 surge.

SevenHills Hospital, the biggest civic-run dedicated COVID hospital, held the drill at 3 pm. A dummy patients was brought to the hospital and shifted to the Intensive Care Unit ward. Following this, the doctors checked the patient's health parameters such as blood pressure, oxygen level and body temperature in three minutes.

A hospital official said, "Earlier it used to take at least 15 minutes to shift patients from the entrance to an ICU bed. But we wanted to reduce the time, so we took the patient's medical history from the previous hospital and reserved the bed. As the treating doctor was already aware of the patient's conditions, treatment could be started immediately."

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The hospital has a total of 1,850 COVID beds including 328 ICU, 650 oxygen-supported beds, and 867 isolation beds. Apart from this, 20 beds are reserved for labour and 20 in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and dialysis supportive beds too. The hospital currently has 90 consultant doctors, 70 resident medical officers, and 180 nurses. The hospital also has 24kL oxygen in reserve, which can last for one week if 30 per cent of the total patient strength required oxygen.

Dr Maharudra Kumbhar, officer on special duty at SevenHills Hospital, said, "As we have been handling the COVID management system since the first wave, we know the nitty gritty and emergencies. With the help of the trained and experienced staff here, we are prepared to handle all types of situations in less time."

Other hospitals

Government-run JJ hospital and St George Hospital also conducted drills. At JJ hospital's fever OPD, Superintendent Dr Sanjay Surase said, "It took around 15 minutes for a patient to enter and be sent to the isolation ward after their swab sample is collected." If the report comes positive, the patient is immediately shifted to the designated COVID ward.

At St George hospital, it took around 10 minutes from the patient entering the hospital premises to getting admitted into the ward. The hospital has 60 COVID beds and around 12 to 15 staff including pulmonologists and physicians. Currently, there are no COVID patients in the hospital.

As per data, a total of 1,308 hospitals, including 610 government hospitals, 628 private hospitals, 28 government medical colleges and 27 private medical colleges, across the state carried out drills till 5 pm on Tuesday.

COVID preparedness

There are 10 municipal hospitals, 3 government hospitals, and 21 private hospitals with COVID wards.

Beds Isolation beds - 2,124 (1,523 functional)
Beds with oxygen facility- 1,613 (1,021 functional)
ICU beds - 579 (473 functional)
Ventilator beds - 1,049 (954 functional)
Manpower
Doctors - 3,245 (2,828
trained in managing COVID)
Nurses - 5,784 (4,029
trained to manage COVID)
Paramedical staff - 3,453 (3,246 trained in managing COVID)
Ambulance
BLS Ambulances - 46
(35 functional)
ALS Ambulance - 25
(25 operational)
Ambulances provided through Public Private Partnerships/NGOs - 21 (18 operational)
108 ambulances - 96
Testing capacity
Daily testing capacity is 1,35,035 (34 hospitals, 49 laboratories)