MARGAO
With no let-up in the daily spike in Covid cases, the male wards in the ESI hospital, Margao, are full of patients, as the bed capacity almost reached the point of saturation on Saturday.
Had it not been for the discharge of around 10-15 patients, the situation would have been worse wherein even patients on the way to recovery from the South Goa district hospital would not have got a bed on Saturday.
As of Saturday, the two male wards were full with 100 patients, while another 35 female patients are occupying the beds in the wards meant for them. This has left just 15 beds available with the management of the ESI hospital as on Saturday evening.
In the meantime, the ESI hospital on Saturday received an oxygen trolley, with officials saying it will greatly help patients undergoing treatment. Though the oxygen trolley can barely last for around eight hours, officials said the hospital will fall back on the cylinders to meet the requirements of the patients.
Unlike the South Goa district hospital, the ESI hospital has no provision for the liquid oxygen logistic facility in the hospital.
Meanwhile, a medical consultant is expected to join the Covid operations at the ESI hospital in a day or two as the government has issued an order to that effect on Saturday.
The ESI hospital had resumed operations around a week on Sunday after the situation went out of control with the government grappling with the shortage of beds at the South Goa district hospital and the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim.
Since then, the ESI hospital has played host to over 100 patients a day, with the bed capacity having reached the saturation point on more than one occasion.
Unlike the past when the ESI hospital was notified as the state’s major Covid hospital, this time it has been made into a step-down facility with patients on the verge of recovery at the district hospital and GMC being shifted there.
