Even as a second wave of infections rampages through the State, severely stretching private and state-owned healthcare systems, city-based doctors and specialists suggest that there are a large number of mildly symptomatic Covid patients who can be treated at home or in satellite facilities without requiring hospitalisation.

Such numbers are at 20-33 per cent as per estimates of doctors and medical practitioners.

Kolkata has over 2,50,000 active Covid cases while the State has over 1,10,000 infections as on April 30. Over 17,000 fresh cases have been added each day over the last few days. The total hospital beds (including satellite facilities) in private hospitals is 5,900 while State government-run hospitals have close to 9,700 beds (include stadiums and other requisitioned facilities).

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According to Sayan Chakraborty, Consultant, Infectious Diseases, AMRI Dhakuria, more than 33 per cent of the patients do not need hospitalisation.

“They can stay at home and can be treated with the home healthcare packages. These packages have doctors, nurses and dieticians guiding them through tele medicine and video calling facilities. We have all the arrangements in place, we also have satellite centres and when the patient condition deteriorates they can think of hospitalisation,” he told BusinessLine .

The fear of not getting a space has seen people getting themselves admitted at the first instance, some doctors say.

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Adding infrastructure

Some of the big hospital chains, including AMRI, Apollo Gleneagles, R N Tagore, Woodlands and Belle Vue Clinic, have tied up with hotels for satellite centres. More satellite centres are being arranged. Many of these will have ICU/HDU facilities, anticipating a surge in infections.

As on April 29, as many as 352 beds have been added across several hotels in the city.

Medica Group of Hospitals has added around 62 beds under satellite centres. It has also tied up with ITC for setting up a 200-300 bed Covid-19 treatment facility at a State-owned stadium.

The State government announced that city-based Charnock Hospital is setting a 300-bed temporary Covid-care facility in the Haj House. Other arrangements are being looked at.

Hospitals have reportedly been told to ramp up on oxygen supplies and ICU beds as cases surge and to avoid a “Delhi-like shortage”.

Some of the larger RWAs are making isolation facilities or “basic treatment arrangements” in their community halls or clubs. Some have even gone ahead to have back-up oxygen supplies in case of an emergency.

Doctors are now suggesting that mildly symptomatic patient get admitted to satellite facilities to avoid stretching hospital infrastructure further and ensure space for emergencies.

The State has launched an exclusive online portal that will show bed availability in private and government Covid hospitals in real time. Patients or their families can log into the portal and apply for beds by uploading the Covid-positive report.

Demand up, for home healthcare services

Interestingly, a large number of senior citizens are signing up for elderly care services. Requests from such citizens asking for Covid-care services have spiralled, say providers like TriBeCa or Support Elders.

“A month or two back we would have one or two customers reporting Covid. But now numbers are up significantly. We ensure routine monitoring of vital parameters and collate these so that if a need arises for hospitalisation then we have the required data in place,” said Prateep Sen, CEO & Co-founder of TriBeCa Care.

Apart from routine monitoring of vitals and keeping doctors in the loop of things, some of these home care providers have tie-ups with hospitals too as an emergency option.

According to Apratim Chattopadhyay, Founder, MD & CEO, Support Elders, ensuring vaccination for its members has helped manage the situation better, particularly amongst the senior citizens.

“Though a lot of our members have been infected we have been able to manage them at home. A lot of our members need oxygen support even before Covid and we have been able to address their needs and hold the fort so far. But the situation is very dynamic,” he said.

The main requirement at present is to address the panic attacks among senior citizens.

Support Elders has been organising several engagement activities on the virtual platform to help its members “stay afloat”.

Hoarding of oxygen

According to health experts, panic hoarding of oxygen cylinders has happened. This has led to a spurt in blackmarketing and stretching of available resourcing.

“Oxygen is vital for treatment of Covid patients. But due to panic many of the common people are procuring those oxygen cylinders and keeping them at home thereby creating an artificial crisis. So patients are facing trouble,” Chakraborty of AMRI Dhakuria, said. Oxygen concentrators are barely available on rent.

In a recent raid, the enforcement branch of the Kolkata police seized 25 filled medical oxygen cylinders (250 litres) from an agency in south Kolkata and at least 15 empty cylinders from a godown in the northern parts of the city.

Oxygen supply ramp-up

On Saturday, the State government issued a statement saying arrangements had been made for 2,000 oxygen concentrators — which will be distributed across State-run Covid-care hospitals; another 2,000-odd will be purchased.

Piped oxygen connection is being provided to 105 Covid hospitals which will benefit/ensure supplies round-the-clock to 12,500 Covid patients in the State. By May 20, piped oxygen connections will be provided to another 41 State-run hospitals, benefiting another 3,000 patients across these.

At least 15 PSA (pressure swing absorption) enabled oxygen plants are expected to go on-stream by June-end. Two district medical colleges have already installed such PSA plants and this reduces dependence on oxygen cylinder suppliers, the statement added.

Detailed projects for setting up 12 more PSA plants have been sent to the Centre.

More oxygen cylinders will be purchased to take the number up to 20,000 in the coming days.

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