KOLKATA: With the number of Covid patients having dropped sharply, non-Covid patients have started swarming hospitals across the city. While OPD footfall has shot up by 80% to 85%, hospital bed occupancy at non-Covid wards has also gone up significantly. Hospitals have converted most Covid wards to non-Covid zones to accommodate general patients.
“During pre-Covid times, we would have 700+ OPD patients on a daily average. During the Covid surge, the OPD had become deserted with patients taking to online consultations. Even two weeks ago, we would have just about 100 to 150 patients. Now, it has picked up and we are seeing 500-plus OPD registrations minus patients from Bangladesh. This is quite an encouraging number,” said Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra.
From departments like medicine, cardiology, orthopaedic, urology and eyecare, a mixed bag of patients is now back to hospitals after months. Hospitals started seeing a dip in non-Covid patients from March-end and by May, apart from emergency cases, pati-ents had stopped visiting hospitals.
“The footfall in our OPD is now about 85% of pre-Covid days. The hospital bed occupancy currently is about 90% by non-Covid patients while Covid patients are occupying only about 10% beds,” said Medica Group chairperson Alok Roy.
CMRI Hospital currently has 500-plus OPD patients against its usual footfall of 700-plus patients. Only 20 Covid patients are admitted against 289 non-Covid patients. Apart from those suffering from influenza, patients are also getting admitted for planned surgeries.
“We now get around 950 patients across our OPDs against our normal footfall of 1,200-plus. Also, due to the sharp fall in Covid patients (only 18 currently), we plan to reduce our Covid zone to only one area that can hold about 25 beds so that we can use non-Covid beds,” said Narayana Health zonal director (east) R Venkatesh.
The number of Covid patients at three units of AMRI has slipped down to 26. The count of patients visiting hospitals to consult doctors physically is now about 60% of its normal footfall. “Patients are now more comfortable and confident in coming back to the hospital after the sharp drop in Covid cases. Our OPD chambers have seen an abrupt jump in footfall as patients are thronging various departments. Online consultations were just a stop-gap measure,” said Belle Vue CEO Pradip Tondon.
