As the number of Covid patients in Delhi hit a new peak each day, the effect is most visible in the availability of hospital beds with ventilators.
On Wednesday morning, only 6.5 per cent of these beds – 76 out of 1,178 – were available across government and private hospitals. This means that patients who are critically ill are having to run from pillar to post to find a bed.
According to the Delhi government app that has real-time data on Covid bed occupancy, ICU beds with ventilators are available only in 24 hospitals out of around 100. Most of these are smaller private hospitals with just 1-2 beds available. Big government hospitals, such as Lok Nayak, Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty, Safdarjung Hospital, Base Hospital Delhi Cantt, among others have no ventilators available.
According to the app, 13,662 hospital beds have been set aside for Covid patients across hospital beds. Of these, 8,962 are occupied.
Out of 1,178 ventilators, only 76 are available and out of 2,141 ICU beds (without ventilators) only 360 are available.
Patients, meanwhile, have also complained that they are facing issues in getting beds even in hospitals where bed availability is reflected in the Delhi government app called Delhi Corona.