Patan and Bir hospitals are preparing to serve only COVID-19 patients if the pandemic were to worsen resulting in acute shortage of hospital beds.
Director of Patan Hospital Dr Ravi Shakya said all 650 beds in the hospital will be used for treating COVID-19 if necessary. The hospital had allocated 180 beds for COVID-19 and has added 80 more from Friday after all of the allotted beds were taken.
Dr Shakya said number of beds can gradually be expanded but oxygen supply remains a challenge pointing how scarcity of oxygen has started now. "The main treatment for COVID-19 patients is oxygen. We have not been able to use all 260 beds now in lack of adequate oxygen."
Pointing that Nepal may also be devastated like India if the current surge were to continue, he said that all the hospitals will have to be kept ready to face the crisis. He urged all the hospitals to not remain idle pointing that they are not designated COVID-19 hospitals and start preparations for that.
Bir Hospital has also started preparations to transform it completely into COVID-19 hospital if the allocated beds don't suffice. Director Dr Shanta Sapkota said that the hospital will use the new surgical block for COVID-19 for now and added that the whole hospital will be used only to treat COVID-19 patients stopping all other services if necessary.
The hospital currently has allocated 70 beds for COVID-19 and is treating 57 patients. "We will expand capacity as the number of COVID-19 patients rises," she stated.
She revealed that over 400 patients can be treated if the whole hospital were used solely for COVID-19. "The actual hospital capacity previously was 400 beds but only 325 are currently in operation due to the destruction wrecked by earthquake. The capacity can be down even more in case of COVID-19," she explained. "We can use 200 beds in the old building in that case and operate 200 in the new surgical block."
