Bed shortage looms amid growing cases in Ukhrul
Source: Chronicle News Service / R Lester Makang
Ukhrul, August 06 2021:
Helplessness over inadequate bed facility is certainly beleaguering doctors and healthcare staffers at the Ukhrul District Hospital (UDH) in the midst of the growing count of symptomatic and comorbid cases of Covid-19 in the district.
According to an official source from the district medical department, the district hospital currently has only 40 beds including 38 in its isolation ward and two ICU beds.
With the admission of a new patient on Friday, 38 beds have already been occupied out of the 40, it said.
"We are now facing extreme difficulties in managing the ever increasing cases of symptomatic and serious patients admitted in our hospital every day," It continued.
The source disclosed that a total of 38 serious patients are currently undergoing treatment in the isolation ward and added that the hospital staffers are working 24x7 as is required by the clinical nature of the inpatients.
Even the total bed capacity of 40 was attained with the addition of 10 beds recently in view of the prevailing situation, it said, expressing helplessness about the bed shortage gnawing at the healthcare workers.
It may be mentioned that a new 75-bedded Covid-19 hospital was earlier slated to become functional from May 29 at TK Wood tourist resort in Shirui village.
This was announced by CM Biren himself during his visit to Ukhrul town on May 24.However, it is not clear as to what has caused the ambitious project to still remain stuck in the ground.
An attempt to reach out to the authorities on the matter proved futile.
Meanwhile, continuing the upward trend in the positivity rate, another fresh 20 Covid cases were found from across the district on Saturday.
DSO Dr Chon said that with the latest detection, the count of active cases has reached 86, even as 18 patients were discharged on the same day.
The district has recorded 28 deaths and its total cumulative positive cases currently stand at 975 in the second wave of the pandemic.