{"id":9583,"date":"2020-07-27T04:31:46","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T04:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/?p=9583"},"modified":"2020-07-27T04:31:46","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T04:31:46","slug":"longer-icu-stays-keep-critical-care-out-of-reach-for-many-in-kolkata-kolkata-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/?p=9583","title":{"rendered":"Longer ICU stays keep critical care out of reach for many in Kolkata | Kolkata News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>KOLKATA: As the number of <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/critical-Covid-19-cases\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" data-ga=\"within_article-topic_link|topic_critical-Covid-19-cases\" frmappuse=\"1\">critical Covid-19 cases<\/a> rise, the <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/average-occupancy-period\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" data-ga=\"within_article-topic_link|topic_average-occupancy-period\" frmappuse=\"1\">average occupancy period<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/ICU-beds\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" data-ga=\"within_article-topic_link|topic_ICU-beds\" frmappuse=\"1\">ICU beds<\/a> has doubled in several private <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/hospitals\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" data-ga=\"within_article-topic_link|topic_hospitals\" frmappuse=\"1\">hospitals<\/a> across Kolkata. This has denied admission to scores of <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/patients\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" data-ga=\"within_article-topic_link|topic_patients\" frmappuse=\"1\">patients<\/a> who need emergency critical care, even as more <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/ICU\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" data-ga=\"within_article-topic_link|topic_ICU\" frmappuse=\"1\">ICU<\/a> patients are now getting cured. <br \/>At least three hospitals have added more ICU beds over the last fortnight. <br \/>Till early July, the average occupancy of a Covid ICU bed at Ruby General Hospital had been just four days. This has now shot up to eight days, forcing the hospital to add four more ICU beds. It has created a backlog of patients waiting to get into ICU, said general manager-operations, Subhasish Datta. \u201cWe were forced to add more ICU beds since the number of critical patients has swelled. But waiting time has risen, which is why we are extending the ICU unit,\u201d said Datta, adding that more patients were now getting cured after ICU admission. <br \/>At Medica Superspecialty Hospital, the number of ICU beds has gone up to 75 from about 50 a month ago, and there have been at least a dozen patients waiting over the last one week. Average occupancy period has jumped from 4-5 days to 8-9 days. \u201cWe have seen a spurt in the number of critical cases,\u201d said Medica chairperson Alok Roy. <br \/>\u201cMore than half of all Covid patients seeking admission are elderly, in need of oxygen, and who require an ICU bed straightaway. Their recovery is often turning out to be slow, due to co-morbidities. But longer occupancy has been an obstacle, and it left us with no other alternative than adding beds. We are close to the limit now,\u201d said Medica chairperson Alok Roy. <br \/>A reason why occupancy period has gone up is that critical Covid patients are not recovering from associated problems even after they turn negative for the virus itself, pointed out Fortis Hospital pulmonologist Raja Dhar. \u201cEarlier, more mild patients would be admitted to ICUs. As the total number of affected has gone up, we have more critical patients with severe co-morbidities like lung injury and muscle weakness, which are keeping them confined to bed even after recovering from Covid. So, while the mildly symptomatic are now released earlier, the recovery time for the critical is now longer,\u201d said Dhar. The average occupancy of an ICU bed at Fortis has now gone up to 14 days. <br \/>At Peerless Hospital, there has been a sharp spurt in the ICU occupancy period \u2014 from 7 days to 12 days \u2014 since the second week of July. \u201cWe have noticed a jump in critical cases since July 10. These patients have severe co-morbidities and are recovering slowly, increasing the bed occupancy period. It has led to a resource crunch, since longer occupancy means ventilators, oxygen and other support are occupied for a longer period. More critical patients and longer bed occupancy not only mean a lower recovery rate, but also denial of ICU care to moderate patients who deteriorate and need critical care,\u201d said Peerless CEO Sudipto Mitra. <br \/>Onco-surgeon Saurav Dutta agreed. \u201cWith the spiralling numbers, this was waiting to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cWe now have a greater number of complicated cases and recovery time is obviously longer for them. There is a limit to which ICU beds can be added, and the problem won\u2019t be solved merely by reducing the treatment time of asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients.\u201d <br \/>At hospitals like RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS) and AMRI, the ICU stay period has not lengthened, but it\u2019s been around 14-15 days. \u201cOur ICU occupancy rate has doubled, and has remained 100% for weeks,\u201d said RTIICS zonal director R Venkatesh. <\/div>\n<p><a href=\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/kolkata\/longer-icu-stays-keep-critical-care-out-of-reach-for-many-in-kol\/articleshow\/77188239.cms\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KOLKATA: As the number of critical Covid-19 cases rise, the average occupancy period of ICU beds has doubled in several private hospitals across Kolkata. This has denied admission to scores of patients who need emergency critical care, even as more ICU patients are now getting cured. At least three hospitals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kolkata"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/1595824308_photo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}