On Tuesday night, the special secretary (health) S M Ali, issued an order directed by the Delhi government to cancel all the routine surgeries in LokNayak and Guru Teg Bahadur hospitals till further orders as the Covid cases continue to increase in the capital.

LokNayak hospital was running its routine operation theatres at 50% capacity; whereas GTB hospital had also decreased the routine operation number to accommodate the Covid-19 patients. Both hospitals were running Covid-19 services on 750 beds, whereas the rest of the beds were being utilised for non-Covid-19 services. 

The Delhi health minister has said that only, 15% of the 15,000 beds available across city hospitals for Covid-19 treatment were occupied, while the government had prepared for 37,000 hospital beds. Hospitalisations stood at just over 2,400 as per Thursday’s health bulletin. 

A senior doctor from GTB hospital said that the hospitals had already started reducing the routine services when healthcare workers started testing positive in large numbers and the doctors we feeling the crunch due to shortage of staff with delay in first-year PG students joining and more doctors testing positive together.

Last week, more than 750 doctors were positive for the infection at six of Delhi’s biggest government hospitals.

Source: The Indian Express