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India?s health infrastructure will benefit from pandemic legacy

2021-08-26

More ICU beds, better hospital penetration at the district level across the country, focus on decentralised medical education, holistic views of supplies of oxygen, equipment and trained manpower, the Covid has pushed India to increase allocations by 137%. E Jayashree Kurup speaks to doctors across the country to assess the reality.

India entered the pandemic phase with a very low hospital bed density of 0.55 per thousand people, less than a third of the prescribed WHO norms of three beds per thousand people.

After wave 1, the 23,000 makeshift beds, 6,000 in ICUs, that were added to combat the increasing cases in late 2020, were removed. However, wave 2 showed how unprepared the entire system was in coping with the peak numbers.

Currently, the Centre has requested the state governments to formulate a full plan relating to: bed capacities, ICU beds, identification of additional hospitals, preparation of field hospital facilities, ensuring sufficient oxygen supported beds and oxygen supplies.

Kerala, with a hospital bed density of 1.05, stood out as an excellent example of early preparedness. Having evolved a contact tracing protocol to contain the Nipah virus in 2018, the state?s performance in tackling the pandemic during the first wave showed a much higher testing capacity and more random surveys. Epidemiologist Gagandeep Kang says even today the state turns up bigger numbers as the intent is to test for correction. Thus the state posts a high case load but with no overwhelming of the state health machinery.

CONSTRUCTION WORLD spoke to several senior heads of departments and directors of state-run hospitals to understand what changes have come about in the country?s health infrastructure. A common reply was that ICU beds used to be in short supply, even in large hospitals. A 1,300 bed hospital would function with just 30 ICU beds, says a senior physician.