PUNE: Major hospitals in the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) are now reporting near-normal or pre-pandemic levels of operations, with elective surgeries and other non-Covid health services resuming in full-strength following the steep decline in cases.
“We achieved over 90% resumption in non-Covid care, mainly elective surgeries and OPD services, this month,” said Dr Dhananjay Kelkar, medical director of the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital (DMH). The DMH was conducting an average of 80 surgeries daily before Covid. It is now seeing an average of 70 patients undergo major to minor procedures every day.“This is fairly pre-pandemic. Currently, we have only one admitted Covid patient, who is set to be discharged in a few days,” Dr Kelkar added.
Dr Vinod Sawantwadkar, CEO of Jehangir Hospital, said, “Planned surgeries here have come back to over 90%. Our OPD services for other illnesses are also getting restored. The tendency to avoid hospital visits due to fear of contracting Covid has almost gone away.”
Covid admissions at Jehangir hospital had dropped to single digits by February-end. “And now, over the last five to six days, we haven’t had a single new admission,” Dr Sawantwadkar added.
Rekha Dubey, CEO of the Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital in Chinchwad, said they were just a few days from achieving 100% pre-pandemic normalcy. “We have achieved about 80% normalcy in terms of planned surgeries and other non-Covid medical work,” she said, adding the hospital just has five admitted Covid patients.
At Sahyadri Hospital, CEO Abrarali Dalal too reported an 80% return to normalcy after the third wave. “People are coming forward to seek medical care for various other ailments,” he said.
TOI has reported that third-wave Covid patients are undergoing elective surgeries within just 14 days of recovery, compared to the six-week gap that was advised to those who recovered during the Delta-triggered second wave.
Surgeon Dr Sanjay Kolte, president of the Poona Surgical Society, said there is now widespread consensus that recovered patients can undergo elective surgeries within two weeks as symptoms have been extremely mild during the Omicron-fuelled third wave.
“This is because Omicron does not affect the lungs, which were the prime target for the Delta variant,” Dr Kolte said.
