Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Jun 8: Despite a steep dip in positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir from past two weeks, the tertiary care hospitals in Srinagar, are still running short of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds as all the available beds are presently occupied, officials said on Tuesday.
Of 154 beds designated as COVID ICU beds, around 65 beds have already been occupied, the officials informed.
A top health official said that 89 COVID ICU beds are presently vacant in the Kashmir division while the three main tertiary care hospitals in Srinagar are running short of ICU beds as all the available beds are presently occupied.
“Condition has eased a bit and the positive rate has started to decrease with each passing day but you can understand how grave the situation was that even when active positive cases have decreased from over 50,000 to around 20,000 but still ICU beds at three main tertiary care hospitals of Kashmir are still occupied,” he said.
An official said three tertiary care hospitals of Srinagar including SKIMS Soura, SKIMS Medical College Hospital Bemina and SMHS Srinagar are having 100 per cent occupancy of the ICU beds and not even a single bed is vacant at present.
An official said that at SKIMS Soura, 370 beds including 340 isolation and 30 ICU beds have been kept reserved for Covid patients, among them 160 isolation and all ICU beds are occupied.
At SMHS, an official said, there are 300 beds kept for Covid patients including 288 isolation beds and 12 COVID ICU beds and among them 201 isolation beds and all 12 ICU beds are full.
“At SKIMS Bemina, of 154 beds including 146 isolation beds and eight ICU beds, 67 isolation beds and all eight ICU beds are occupied,” an official said.
“At CD hospital, of 94 total bed capacity, 77 are isolation beds and 17 are ICU beds. 07 ICU beds and 15 isolation beds are available,” an official said.
An official at JLNM hospital said out of 213 including 200 isolation and 13 ICU beds, 174 isolation and 09 ICU beds are vacant.
“Besides that at PHC Chanapora out of 41 isolation beds and four ICU beds, 25 isolation and four isolation beds are available,” an official said.
The ICU beds which are vacant in Kashmir so far include five at GMC Baramulla, seven at SDH Sopore, seven at Trauma Hospital Bijbehara, six at district Hospital Bandipora, 10 at MCH wing Kulgam, four at AMT School Shopian, 10 at District hospital Pulwama, 12 at District hospital Gandebal and eight at CHC Kupwara.
In the Kashmir division out of 2,699 isolation beds, 988 beds are full and 1,711 are vacant. Among 154 isolation beds, 65 beds are occupied while 89 are vacant.
Pertinently, there are around 14,000 active positive cases in the Kashmir division.
