Mumbai: At Mulund centre, semi-ICUs to the rescue of critically ill

To cover demand for life-saving units, jumbo centre in the eastern suburbs has equipped beds with machines needed to treat serious COVID patients

With Coronavirus cases rising and hospitalisations increasing, need for ICUs is becoming paramount to save the critically ill patients. At Mulund Jumbo COVID Care Centre, only 20 of the 1,600 beds are allotted to the intensive care units. To ensure it has more beds to treat people with severe complications, the facility recently came up with a resolution - semi-ICUs.

Pradeep Angre, dean of the jumbo centre in the eastern suburbs, said, “We set up the semi-ICU facility about 10 days back, as it was becoming difficult to move critical patients in need of oxygen or BiPAP. So, we set up equipment needed to treat COVID-19 patients in about 10 beds.”

The semi-ICUs will be equipped with ventilators, ECG machines, 24/7 oxygen supply, BiPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure) machines and medicines, and have doctors available too.

Now, the BMC’s T ward office is planning to open a COVID centre at Octroi Naka building in Mulund and set it up with semi-ICU beds. This facility will have 16 oxygen beds along with 60 additional beds for COVID-19 care. Assistant Municipal Commissioner Kishore Gandhi said, “It will be like ICUs, with all the necessary equipment needed for COVID-19 treatment.”

The Dahisar jumbo centre is also likely to set up semi-ICU beds to cater to the patients in the north-west suburbs of the city. Doctors said they would need another seven days to set up the required equipment.

The city has been reeling under a serious crisis of ICU beds, as hardly 45 of them are available. Also, only 12 ventilator beds are vacant. To avoid any grave situation, hospitals are coming up with initiatives on their own.

The BMC has said the city would be getting more ICU beds, but there seems to be a delay.  Many critical patients are still waiting to be transferred to ICUs. The T ward office said it will soon set up a 30-bed High Dependency Unit that will be like an ICU.

‘Requests fell on deaf ears’

A doctor from the Mulund centre said, “Daily, around 150 new patients are coming in and most of them are senior citizens.” 

While Angre said, “We asked the BMC to increase ICU beds, which is a must in the current situation.”

- Inputs from Mehul Jethva

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No. of semi-ICU beds Mulund jumbo centre has now

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