Mumbai amps up hospital capacity and stocks medicines as Covid cases rise

Occupancy has more than doubled over the last week

As the city witnesses yet another surge of Covid-19 cases, authorities have begun adding bed capacity as occupancy has crossed 1 per cent. As of June 10, 369 of the 24,943 beds in Mumbai were occupied (see chart 1). This means nearly 15 out of every 1,000 beds are accounted for by Covid-19 patients.

In comparison, fewer than four of every 1,000 beds were occupied a week ago. The daily cases rose to 1,956 on June 10 from 506 on May 31, with a positivity rate of nearly 13 per cent. Daily cases of hospitalisation have risen from 17 to 83 in the same period.

An analysis of disclosures since the beginning of the month shows that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has added 471 beds in the period. The BMC had earlier been slowly dismantling Covid-19 facilities because the cases were low.

The past data shows Mumbai had around 37,576 beds as of January 31. There had been an increasing trend in bed capacity at the time because of the third wave, fuelled by the Omicron variant. This fell to 35,927 beds as of February 28, and 26,228 beds as of March 31. Oxygen beds fell from 12,060 as of January 31 to 4,699 by May 31.

The number of ventilators went down from 1,526 to 845 in the same period even as beds in intensive care units (ICUs) declined from 3,098 to 1,520 in the same period.

The data after May 31 largely shows a net addition in hospital bed capacity. The number of ICU beds is now up to 1,561 while that for ventilators has risen to 853. Oxygen beds have risen to 4,794. All this is since the beginning of June. (see chart 2).

Meanwhile, private sector hospital beds in Mumbai can be ramped up within 24 hours, says the industry. Gautam Bhansali of the Bombay Hospital, who is also the coordinator between the city’s private hospitals and the municipal corporation, said at the moment 2,200 beds were active in the city for Covid-19 patients and of these 14-15 are occupied.

“For example, in the Bombay Hospital we have 14 beds assigned to Covid now but none is occupied. However, we have asked all private hospitals to be ready to scale up if the need arises,” Bhansali said. He claimed beds could be scaled up from 2,200 to 16,000 within 24 hours

Hospitals have taken stock of essential Covid-19 medicines -- remdesivir, monoclonal antibodies, and medical oxygen capacities -- following meetings between senior BMC officials and hospitals last week. Bhansali added no big wave was expected and hospitalisation demand was unlikely to rise steeply.

Hospitals have agreed to charge government rates for 80 per cent of their Covid beds while setting hospital rates for the remaining 20 per cent.

“It’s up to the patients to decide which category of beds they want. We have supported the government for the past two years and this is, hopefully, the last leg. We are with them,” Bhansali said.