MARGAO
Goa’s main Covid hospital, the ESI hospital, Margao, which had played host to hundreds of positive patients over the last seven months is experiencing a strange situation.
Notified as Goa’s lone and dedicated Covid hospital before the government set up critical care units in the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim, and later commissioned the South Goa district hospital for the purpose, the ESI hospital had seen the worst days when the bed capacity reached a state of saturation at the peak of the virus.
Strange it may seem, but true that beds are now vacant in the ESI hospital. Not just five or 10 beds, but on an average around 30-35 beds have been lying empty for the last three days.
Doctors manning the ESI hospital have no explanation to offer over the availability of beds in the hospital. They said the hospital was not receiving patients in critical condition every day.
“The bed capacity in the ESI hospital has been hovering around 160-170 in the last three days. We do not have any particular reason why the beds are vacant. We have not gone into it,” informed ESI hospital head Dr Vishwajit Faldesai.
Sources in the hospital say there’s no specific reason why so many beds are available for patients as compared to a month ago when the authorities were literally struggling to make space for the increasing number of patients.
“We have not gone into the reasons why there are 30-35 beds empty in the ESI hospital over the last three days. We have no idea whether it is because of the setting up of critical unit at the GMC and the commissioning of the district hospital,” remarked an official.
The ESI hospital was requisitioned as a Covid hospital in March. When it was requisitioned by the District Collector, it started functioning as a 60-bedded hospital, though it was designed and planned as a 100-bedded hospital.
The hospital’s bed capacity was soon upgraded to accommodate around 150 patients before it was upgraded to a 220 in the wake of the spike in Covid cases across the state.
