SHILLONG, May 27: The Shillong Civil Hospital, the biggest government health facility in East Khasi Hills district has no empty beds now.
According to official records, the hospital has 115 beds, 103 of them oxygen-supported and 12 ICU beds. All of these were occupied on Thursday.
Similarly, the Reid Provincial Chest Hospital was packed to capacity and did not have any vacant bed on Thursday. The hospital has 30 beds.
MIMHANS had three vacant beds available while 21 out of 42 beds in Ganesh Das Hospital, 26 out of 36 beds in Military Hospital and 143 out of 155 in NEIGHRIHMS were occupied till the time of reporting.
Among the private hospitals, Bethany had seven beds vacant out of a total of 58 and Nazareth, Roberts and Supercare had three vacant beds each.
Ri Bhoi district with 1,225 active cases had only one vacant bed in Nongpoh Civil Hospital while 17 beds out of 16 oxygen-supported and two ICU beds in Nongpoh Government Hospital had been occupied.
The data said Meghalaya has 1,113 beds available, of which 975 are oxygen-supported and 138 ICU beds. The total number of beds vacant on Thursday was 317.
Concerns have been raised time and again over hospitals in Shillong struggling to manage the COVID situation due to the limited number of beds. The increasing number of patients has made the state government push for corona care centres at the community level besides planning to set up two prefab hospitals with a total of 200 beds.
The Centre has already sanctioned Rs 6.7 crore to set up the prefabs in Shillong and Tura.
TUR AGAINST PREFAB CENTRES
Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR) has expressed concern over the government’s plans to spend crores on the two prefab centres.
“We urge the government to utilise this money in creating/upgrading ICU facilities in district headquarters where even ventilators and fully-equipped ambulances are not available at District Civil hospitals. It is shocking that persons who need intensive care have to rush to Shillong and Tura and that even ambulances for transporting them are not available,” TUR said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the organisation, the market price of a ventilator is Rs 14 lakh and Rs 2 crore can fetch at least 14 ventilators which are desperately required given that the ventilators provided by the PMCARES were all unfit for use.
“In fact, the state government should have made this known to the public and raised a stern objection with the Modi-led BJP central government. Further, last July, 25 ambulances were procured. We need to know where these are. Additionally, the government announced Rs 75 crore towards the upgrading of PHCs. What was acquired and achieved with this needs to be immediately informed to the public,” TUR said.
The social organisation also underlined the warning from scientists that more waves of this pandemic will make it endemic.
“We, therefore, need long-term planning and not indulge in piecemeal planning and useless expenditure. It is imperative that the state’s crumbling healthcare infrastructure is revamped and hence resources judiciously used towards this and also towards skill building and ensuring trained human resource availability. The state government has also asked local bodies to help with community COVID care centres and resources should be made available towards this effort,” TUR stated.
The social organisation also asked the government to reveal the “formula” to be used for calculating MHIS support for COVID hospitalisation.
