As cases rise, how prepared is Delhi?

Delhi’s Economic Survey 2019-20 says there are 57,709 hospital beds in Delhi in medical institutions. Of these, 11,770 are in 38 Delhi government-run institutions, while 9,716 are in 21 institutions run by the Centre. Another 2,995 beds are available in four autonomous institutions such as Patel Chest Institute and National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases. The largest share, though, is in the private and voluntary organisations sector at 29,502. Municipal bodies have 3,726 beds in 53 institutions. Delhi has a total of 1,291 hospitals and nursing homes — 1,175 in the private space.

At what rate have the number of hospitals, beds increased over the past few years?

Between 2011 and 2018, Delhi added 15,111 hospital beds. This includes those in private as well as public facilities. While the biggest addition of 4,500 beds was made between 2013-2014, the city has added a total of 7,740 beds between 2015-2018.
As Delhi’s population increased, beds per thousand population did not grow very quickly. In 2011, when Delhi’s population was 1.7 crore, there were 2.50 beds available per 1,000 people. By 2018, this grew to 2.94 as the population touched 1.96 crore.

What does the government’s projection show?

Delhi’s doubling rate is 12.6 days, and the city was just short of 30,000 cases Monday. In an official statement, the government said the city will have 44,000 cases by June 15 and 6,600 beds will be needed. By June 30, the government expects 1 lakh cases and requirement for 15,000 beds. By July 31, Sisodia said, Delhi will have 5.5 lakh cases and a requirement for 80,000 beds.

What is Delhi’s plan to increase capacity?

As of now, the government has 8,892 Covid beds in close to 100 government and private hospitals. The biggest of these is Lok Nayak Hospital, a dedicated Covid facility with 2,000 beds. This is followed by GTB Hospital with 1,500 beds. As per the Delhi government’s app to check availability of beds, 4,028 beds are still vacant. There are 507 ventilators for Covid patients in Delhi, of which 317 are occupied. Based on the projections, the government is looking to convert stadia, banquet halls, hotels into Covid facilities where symptomatic patients can be sent. Serious patients will have to remain admitted in hospitals. But the biggest challenge is to get manpower — doctors, nurses , other allied staff for the new facilities.